Reason for Zinedine Zidane's headbutt

nUmErOuNo

Zinedine Zidane's headbutt on Italy's Marco Materazzi was apparently prompted by the latter's loose comment about the French captain's wife, the defender's agent said on Tuesday.
The Inter Milan player's agent Phil Smith gave the Italian's version of what happened.
Speaking to Sydney's Daily Telegraph, Smith said the altercation began when Materazzi grabbed the Frenchman's shirt, pinching his nipple. "If you want my shirt so much, then you can "---" have it after the game," Zidane supposedly said.
"I'd rather have the shirt off your woman," Materazzi was then said to have responded, referring to Zidane's wife Veronique.
This indecent remark was apparently too much for Zidane to take and he rammed his head into the chest of the Italian, an act for which he was sent off by the referee with 10 minutes left to go for the end of extra-time.
Earlier, when asked whether he had insulted Zidane's sister or mother, Materazzi on arriving in Italy had said, it was an "insult of the kind you will hear dozens of times and that just slips out on the ground." But he denied calling the mercurial Frenchman a terrorist.
"I certainly didn't call him a terrorist; I am ignorant, I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is. My only terrorist is her,” he said pointing to his 10-month-old daughter, who was sleeping next to him on the plane that took the Italian team back to Itay. “I certainly did not mention Zidane's mother; for me a mother is sacred." The French player's agent said that the footballer's sharp reaction was provoked by a "very serious" comment made by the Italian defender.
According to a report on Brazilian television channel Globo, the former Real Madrid star’s act in his last match before retiring may have been provoked by Materazzi calling his sister a prostitute. Globo employed lipreading experts who said the Italian twice insulted Zidane's sister.

molliekutty :) · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:12 pm Post subject:

kando kando! i knew it had to be something personal like that. Neutral

liztom · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:49 pm Post subject:

yea well! whatever the reason...sambhavikkan ullathu sambhavichu Rolling Eyes

molliekutty :) · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 1:28 pm Post subject:

enaalum angene paranju thallikalayaan patumo lizmolly? Zidane inde bhavi alle poyethe Neutral

Rajappan · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:50 pm Post subject:

Pulli allelum retire cheyuvalle. Rolling Eyes

liztom · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:59 pm Post subject:

yea chechy atha njanum orthe Rolling Eyes

vichu · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:38 am Post subject:

More from CNN IBN
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French football player Zinedine Zidane has apologised for head-butting an Italian opponent during the World Cup final.

Zidane said that he had been provoked by insults about his mother and sister

"I apologise, to all the children," he said in his first comments after the incident that marked the rather disgraceful end of his illustrious career.

Zidane did not specify exactly what Italian defender Marco Materazzi said.

"I would rather have taken a punch in the jaw than have heard that, Zidane said stressing that Materazzi's language was very harsh.

Relaxed and soft-spoken, Zidane repeatedly apologised to fans, especially to children, in several interviews on Wednesday, three days after the abrupt, violent act prompted his sending off in extra time of the final won by Italy.

"Above all, I'm human," he said.

The 34-year-old midfielder said he didn't regret the head-butt which marked the end of his 18-year professional career.

"I tell myself that if things happened this way, it's because somewhere up there it was decided that way," he told TF1 television. "And I don't regret anything that happened, I accept it."

Zidane and Materazzi exchanged words after Italy broke up a French attack. Seconds later, Zidane lowered his head and rammed Materazzi in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

Zidane was sent off, reducing France to 10 men. Italy went on to win in a penalty shootout while Zidane - an excellent penalty-taker - was in the locker room.

The act of aggression scarred the end of the World Cup, with many warning it would tarnish Zidane's formidable legacy. He retired after the tournament, and he said his decision was definitive.

The French star stressed he felt no regret about his outburst "because that would mean (Materazzi) was right to say all that".

"My act is not forgivable," Zidane said. "But they must also punish the true guilty party, and the guilty party is the one who provokes."
For days, sports fans around the world have been riveted by the question: What could Materazzi have said to set off Zidane in the last moments of his career? Media from Brazil to Britain hired lip readers to try to figure it out, then came up with different answers.

Materazzi has acknowledged he insulted Zidane, without giving specifics. At nearly the same moment Zidane was on TV, excerpts from an interview that Materazzi gave were posted on an Italian paper's Web site.

"I didn't say anything to him about racism, religion or politics," Materazzi told Gazzetta dello Sport. "I didn't talk about his mother either. I lost my mother when I was 15 and even now I still get emotional talking about her."

Zidane "has always been my hero," Materazzi said. "I admire him a lot."

Despite the head-butt, journalists selected Zidane for the Golden Ball award for best player at the World Cup - though FIFA president Sepp Blatter has suggested Zidane could be stripped of the honour.

FIFA's disciplinary committee opened an inquiry on Tuesday into Zidane's behavior. His red card was not unusual: Zidane was sent off 14 times in his career at the club and international level.

Despite his temper, Zidane is better known for his sportsmanship and dancer-like style with the ball. He is a national hero to the French, and a symbol of a young, multicultural France.

Born to Algerian immigrants, Zidane grew up playing on concrete in an impoverished neighborhood of Marseille.

President Jacques Chirac has had only kind words for Zidane since the match - reassuring him that France still "admires and loves him".

Many in France have already pardoned Zidane. A poll published in Le Parisien newspaper on Tuesday showed 61 percent of the 802 people questioned forgave Zidane.

Former France coach Michel Hidalgo said Zidane was "touching, dignified and human" in the interviews.

"We have made him into a god, we have canonised him, but he's above all a man, and a man is fragile and breakable," he told LCI television. "He isn't Zorro, or the god of soccer."

molliekutty :) · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:48 am Post subject:

paavam zidane Sad

nUmErOuNo · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 12:27 pm Post subject:

its bad to hear that FIFA is going to strip the GB honour frm him

liztom · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 3:14 pm Post subject:

yea...i feel sorry for Zidane

Rajappan · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:16 pm Post subject:

nUmErOuNo · Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:33 am Post subject:

kerala assemblyil idhinte edhire oru paramayam pass cheythu FIFA ki aayyeechalloooooo Wink

gentleris · Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 6:47 am Post subject:

anyways, we dont know, what excactly happened there ...
Zidane told his part ...Matterazy also denied that ! ... so, now its all upto Fifa to take a call .

vichu · Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:03 am Post subject:

gentleris · Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:15 pm Post subject:

atrem venodey ?