At the 2006 World Cup, the French team came to the tournament in the mindset of not being the most promising candidate when the old team nua and had to rely on Zinedine Zidane at the age of 34. After convincingly passing the group stage, many people thought that Les Bleus would soon return home because their opponent, Spain, had won all 3 matches.
However, that was also the time when Zizou burst into flames, played great, bringing inspiration to the under-20 team. The former world champion in 1998 took turns over very strong opponents such as Spain, Brazil, and Portugal to enter the final against Italy with a "super defensive" squad at that time.
On July 9, France and Italy entered the final at Olympia Stadium in Berlin, witnessed by 69,000 fans. In the 7th minute, Zidane opened the scoring with a Panenka kick from the 11m mark, but in the 19th minute, Marco Materazzi equalized for Italy.
The score was kept unchanged until the end of the 90 minutes, then almost the end of the extra period, the turning point occurred. After an attack, Zidane retreated, exchanged words with Materazzi and then suddenly used his hook to the Italian defender's chest. The referee gave Zidane a red card in the 110th minute. With no more goals, the match was then decided on the 11m mark and the victory belonged to Italy (5-3).
Zizou received a red card for the 14th time in his career. He was the fourth person to be sent off in the World Cup final, one of two players sent off in two different World Cups and the only one to be sent off in extra time in the final. That was also the last time he wore the French national team jersey.
The story of Zidane and Materazzi was discussed a long time later, because for a person as serious as a legend of French football, it must be something really serious that made him act like that. Materazzi explained that he said he wanted Zidanes shirt (because of his shirt pulling and Zidane responded that after the match, I will give him to his uncle), but in the end, in mid-2020, the Italian player admitted that he had insulted Zidanes sister.
The incident became so famous that a 5m high bronze statue, depicting the actions of Zidane and Materazzi, was erected in Paris.
