Materazzi says De Miguel's death made him thank God before Italy-France

A thank-you to God

Marco Materazzi has returned to the 2006 World Cup final headbutt in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, published on Thursday, 12 November, the day Italy and France meet in the Nations League. Asked whether the episode weighs more on Zinedine Zidane, now France's head coach, than on him, Materazzi said it does not. He pointed instead to the death of Jesús de Miguel, a 30-year-old Tenerife forward who died on 3 November, a day after a heavy collision with Andorra goalkeeper Jesús Owono during a LaLiga Hypermotion match. Materazzi said that case made him thank God that nothing serious had happened to him.

“The death of Jesús de Miguel made me thank God that nothing happened.”

Materazzi noted that the goalkeeper has been spoken of in terms of involuntary manslaughter over a challenge in the game. He then asked what would have happened if the same thing had happened to him. El Periódico reported that the headbutt came during extra time of the 2006 final in Berlin, between France and Italy, and that the question he posed in the interview was aimed at that moment.

An apology that never came

Materazzi said he made a mistake in the 2006 final but was provoked, and that he would have said as much that night or the following day. Asked how the roles would look reversed, he argued that an apology the next day would have made Zidane look like a true gentleman, while he himself would have remained the same old idiot who had provoked him. He added that the matter would have ended there, with no further dispute.

“I made a mistake, but I was provoked. You can draw your own conclusions about how it happened; I apologise.”

Materazzi also argued that the challenge could have been avoided, since he was neither the first nor the last defender to hold back an opponent to stop a goal. He said that if he were a coach and had a defender who stopped an opponent with cunning, he would shake that player's hand. He called Zidane's own comments, that he is not proud of the headbutt but has no regrets, a somewhat contradictory position.

The 2010 meeting in Milan

Materazzi described a meeting in November 2010 at the Meliá hotel in Milan, on the eve of a Milan-Real Madrid Champions League match. After greeting José Mourinho, then Real Madrid coach, he saw Zidane parking his car, approached him and shook his hand. He said he told Zidane he was glad they had met where nobody could see them, and that Zidane answered that such things happen and belong to the past. According to Materazzi, Zidane later denied all of it and said he had taken him for a fan. ABC reported that Zidane has publicly said he has not spoken to Materazzi since the Berlin final.

Timeline and the match

The timeline runs from the 2006 final to the interview published on 12 November. Jesús de Miguel's collision took place on 2 November and his death was reported on 3 November, so the football episode from 2006 and the recent events are separated by two decades. Italy and France play their Nations League match later on Thursday, 12 November, which is why the interview surfaced on the same day. Materazzi's account is his own, and none of the reports published on Thursday provided a response from Zidane to the 2010 version of events.