Everton at the World Cup: In the 2006 championship game, former Blues defender Marco Materazzi played a busy night for Italy against France.
In the 2006 World Cup final, France’s Zinedine Zidane headbutted Italy’s Marco Materazzi, resulting in the opponent getting sent off.
Chris Beesley of The ECHO keeps up his daily series of pieces about Everton and the World Cup that has been running throughout the competition in Qatar.
Marco Materazzi is the only Everton player to have appeared in a World Cup final and scored, but surprisingly, it’s another notorious moment from that same game from his fairly busy night in 2006 that most remember from his rather busy persona.
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Materazzi had an eventful tournament in Germany leading up to the final. Materazzi spent one season at Everton after joining on a £2.8 million transfer from Perugia in 1998. He was last seen in a royal blue jersey crying on the sidelines after receiving his third red card of the season against Coventry City.
His big chance came when he came on for the injured Alessandro Nesta just 17 minutes into Italy’s final group match against the Czech Republic in Hamburg. Nine minutes later, he scored the opening goal in a 2-0 victory. He had been on the bench for Italy’s first two games (a 2-0 win over Ghana and a 1-1 draw with the USA).
However, Materazzi was severely dismissed on minute 51 for a challenge on Mark Bresciano in the second round match against Australia at Kaiserslautern after being given his first start, allowing his teammates to advance 1-0 in overtime.
He missed the 3-0 quarterfinal rout over Ukraine due to his suspension, but Materazzi came back for the 2-0 win in extra time over the host country in Dortmund, securing his spot in the championship game. When Materazzi fouled Florent Malouda during a match against France in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, Zinedine Zidane was able to put their opponents up after just seven minutes.
However, the former Everton player quickly atoned for his mistakes by heading in the equalizer from an Andrea Pirlo corner kick with 19 seconds left on the clock. For the first time in 20 years, both teams scored in the World Cup final, which remained scoreless and went into extra time. Ten minutes before the penalty shootout, the major flashpoint occurred when Zidane, who had already been selected as the Golden Ball winner as player of the tournament, was sent off for headbutting Materazzi, another goal scorer.
In the 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France, Marco Materazzi confronts Florent Malouda to concede a penalty, scores with a header to tie the score, then wins the game with a penalty kick.
Without their talisman, who had of course scored from 12 yards out in the first half, Materazzi kept his composure to score Italy’s second of five flawless penalties in the shootout, defeating France, whose “Golden Goal” match-winning goal against the same opponents in the 2000 European Championship hit the crossbar with their second attempt.
For many years following, many speculated about what precisely had happened between Materazzi and Zidane, but eventually the center-back revealed what he had done to his opponent to make him so agitated.
After allegations that he had made a remark about Zidane’s mother, the Everton old boy won a libel case in 2009 to clear his name. However, in 2020, he said to AS: “Zidane’s headbutt? In that instant, I wasn’t preparing for it.
“I was fortunate that the entire experience caught me off guard because if I had anticipated it and been prepared for it, I’m sure both of us would have ended up getting expelled.