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2006 World Cup

Materazzi was a member of the Italian national team that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Materazzi was substituted in for Alessandro Nesta. His first goal of the game was against Czech Republic and he scored it with a towering header by a corner kick. He dedicated that goal to Daniel DeRossi who was sent off in a previous match.He was most importantly featured in Italy’s World Cup Final against France, where he let France get a goal through a penalty. But he stabilized it by scoring an equalizer from a Pirlo corner kick. Later in the game, and the most controversial part of them all, he was involved in an off-the-ball incident where he got headbutted by Zinedine Zidane. According to Zidane, Materazzi’s insults were not religion based, and that he had sarcastically offered Materazzi’s shirt after he had pulled it. However, the insults did have something to do with Zidane’s sister and mother. Materazzi denied it even though it was confirmed by an official lip-reader. Mat was fined CHF 5000 and was suspended for two matches; Zizou was fined CHF 7500 and suspended for three matches. Later, Mat admitted he did actually insult Zid’s sister, by saying he would rather prefer Zid’s sister when he was offered the shirt. Before all this, Mat had claimed he didn’t know Zid even had a sister. Later, Mat scored the second goal in the penalty shoot-out which Italy won to win the FIFA World Cup. Zidane was given the Golden Ball Award and his retirement was announced.