Zinedine Zidane Headbutt world cup final 2006

A flashy midfielder, Zinedine Zidane won the Golden Ball as the most valuable player in the World Cups of 1998 and 2006. Zidane's nickname is "Zizou". He played his first professional First Division game for Cannes in 1991 and quickly rose through the professional ranks.

On 9 July 2006, Zidane played his second World Cup final his final game and scored in the 7th minute from the penalty spot with a chip shot that hit the crossbar before narrowly bouncing behind the goal line. He became one of only four footballers to achieve the feat of scoring in two different World Cup finals, sharing the honour with Pele, Paul Breitner, and Vava.

If you were among the billion or so viewers watching the soccer World Cup final on Sunday (9 July 2006) chances are you were struck more by the ignominious end to Frenchman Zinedine Zidane's career rather than the game itself.

In his final game, the 2006 World Cup final against Italy, Zidane was red-carded out of the game for a bizarre headbutt to the chest of Italy's Marco Materazzi. Italy won the game and the World Cup on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw. However, Zidane was still named the tournament's most outstanding player.

In the 110th minute of the World Cup final a, Zidane was sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest in an off-the-ball incident after the two players had exchanged words. Since video footage suggested that Materazzi had provoked Zidane, newspapers had lip readers try to determine what Materazzi had said, coming up with a variety of obscene and racist insults. Zidane has explained the incident by saying Materazzi insulted his mother and sister.

Materazzi admitted insulting Zidane, but said that Zidane's behaviour had been very arrogant. He stressed that the insults had been trivial.

Zidane's dismissal in extra-time for a head butt into the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi ensured he missed a tense penalty shootout which Italy won 5-3 and killed hopes of a fairytale ending to a glittering career.

French superstar Zinedine Zidane was handed a three-match ban and fined 7,500 Swiss francs (4,700 euros) on Thursday for his infamous headbutt on Italy's Marco Materazzi in the World Cup final, FIFA said Materazzi was also handed a two-match suspension and fined 5,000 Swiss francs (3,100 euros).

France's President Jacques Chirac was characteristically philosophical on the off-the-ball clash: "I don't know what happened, why Zidane was punished. But I would like to express all the respect that I have for a man who represents at the same time all the most beautiful values of sport, the greatest human qualities one can imagine, and who has honored French sport and, simply, France".

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