Zinédine Zidane recounted with precision, this Thursday in the Team, why he had cracked during the final of the 2006 World Cup by giving a whim to the Italian Marco Materazzi. The former playmaker of the France team assumes his gesture but without pride.
Zinédine Zidane wrote the best hours in the history of the France team with his double in the final of the 1998 World Cup at the Stade de France. In 2006, the attacking midfielder of the Blues saw Gianluigi Buffon deprive him of a double in the world final lost against Italy. A few minutes later, Zizou left football on a whim that became legendary on Marco Materazzi.
“It ends average for me. I’m not proud, admitted Zinedine Zidane in a long interview with the newspaper The Team on the occasion of his 50th birthday. That day, my mom is very tired. I have my sister on the phone several times during the day. I know my mum isn’t well but it’s not a big deal either. It concerns me nonetheless. I still stay focused. But these are things that are jostling.”
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Zidane: “For a second. And here we go…”
Without a club since leaving Real in 2021, Zinédine Zidane is looking for a new challenge. Without closing the door to an arrival at PSG in the future, the technician makes the post of coach of the Blues an objective. A team from France, where his journey was interrupted after insults from Marco Materazzi against the sister of the French number 10.
“The pressure, this, that. He doesn’t talk about my mother. He often said that he hadn’t insulted my mother, it’s true. But he insulted my sister, who was with my mother at that time. On the ground, there have already been insults, says Zizou. Everyone speaks to each other, sometimes badly, but you do nothing. There, that day, this happened that happened, further detailed Zinedine Zidane. He triggered something by talking about my sister Lila. The space of a second. And it’s gone… But afterwards, you have to accept. I’m not not proud but it’s part of my journey. At that time, I was more fragile. It’s sometimes in these moments that you can do something that is not good…”
Zidane admits that “it’s hard”
Author of a brilliant panenka at the start of the match, passed very close to the double then came out head down during extra time. Zinédine Zidane left the Blues through the back door in the 2006 World Cup final. But “Zizou” intends to resume his love affair with the France team to make people forget this whim of sad memory.
“It ends like this. Thierry Gilardi was right with the comments: ‘Not like that…’. But here it is. It’s like that. It’s hard. But it’s my career. my two goals in 1998 in the final, concluded the 50-year-old coach. That’s why I say that with the Blues it’s not over. Somehow, I don’t want to end like that . It’s not over.”
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