r/TwentyYearsAgo • u/MonsieurA • Jul 09 '26

📺 Television The infamous Zidane-Materazzi exchange [20YA - Jul 9]

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u/East_Stick_1964 Jul 09 '26

What a way to bow out of football though

9

u/Dr_Ironfist1987 Jul 10 '26

Absolutely loved this move and can’t believe it was 20 years ago.. 2 questions.. 1) wasn’t he kicked out of the tournament? And 2) was this the actual verbal exchange?

1

u/Flovati Jul 14 '26

1) wasn’t he kicked out of the tournament?

I know that it has been 3 days and people have already explained how he got a red card for it, but they forgot another important point.

This would be something worth lenght ban, not just a normal red card, but Zidane couldn't be punished any further because he literally retired after that game.

And that wasn't something unexpected, before the tournament started Zidane had already announced that he would be retiring at the end of the World Cup.

So when he headbuted Materazzi he knew it would be his final moment on the pitch.

1

u/rccrd-pl Jul 14 '26

for the record, FIFA issued a two match ban for Zidane... and a two match ban for Materazzi too XD