Let's start saying a few things already written in this forum which I agree with:

1) Zidane is not an idiot, I've always thought, and I still think, he's quite smart

2) He knows how to bear the pressure of an important match

3) He's pretty well able to play with people (other footballers and the other team's supporters) insulting you (mom, sisters, dad and so on up to the 7th generation). He played Juventus for 5 years and, at least in Italy, the better you play the more you are insulted.

4) The whole world talks about him and Materazzi (he's playing the victim)

5) He know pretty well his public image is the most important thing he has. Leave apart him saying that no reaction would have meant that Materazzi's insults were true. This is an excuse barely acceptable even if coming from a 6 y.o. child.

6) His sponsors did not leave him. His public image improved by a lot since that fact, and not only in France.

7) He did not talk about this fact for days, it grew and grew, a few hundred million people, even those who never cared about football, were discussing and, mostly, defending him (excep here in Italy)

Given all these things, the doubt I have is: and if he did it on purpose to make the noisest exit from the pitch ever?
It's just a doubt but... it could be real.

In such case he made an asshole of us all in spite of sportmanship, football etc...

AZZURRI CAMPIONI!!!!

Yes you support Zidane, Trezeguet, Thuram, Viera when it is good for you, when it is not good for you, you insult these players like the Korean of Perugia who was layed off Perugia in 2002.

That's the difference between you the italians and me, because i supported Waddle and England when France was not qualified for WC 90. And i still support Morientes, it's a bad things spain have not taken him to play for the WC, because these players had made great things for France, and i never forget.

Juventus supporters supported those players, not the rest. This does not mean the rest now insult them.
I personally liked (and still like) Zidane, I think he was one of the few great players not acting like a superstar.

I'm glad to hear we italians are different from you, even if it's not clear which logical path you followed to compare 60.000.000 people with you. I'll tell you a secret: we're also different between us italians.
Isn't it the same in France?

Nevertheless I think Zidane's reaction could have been premeditated and that exit planned.

Should this science-fiction's theory be true (which we'll never come to know though) your national team's leg (and a few others in the world) were pulled by its best champion.

Do you really think Zidane prefer his actual exit to a "winning the world cup for his last match" ending... ?

Of course not and even if we dont know his thoughts, we can pretty much answer to the question by looking at the following fact : Zidane tried to score (head) during extra-time. France was clearly the better team then and could have won 11vs11.

Moreover, when Materazzi first insulted Zidane, Zidane just left, smiling. Materazzi kept on insulting Zidane, and that's when and only when Zidane overreacted. If he premeditated a noisy exit, he would have jumped at the first chance (first insult by materazzi) : he wouldn't have left "hopping that Materazzi would continue".

Ghana should have won against italy

Usa should have won against italy the two exits of the usa players

Australia should have won against Italy the penalty given to Italy in the last minute

Ukraine have made a big game against Italy but with no luck and a great buffon in this match

France should have won against Italy, materazzi premeditated provocation and to win a world cup on penalty is very low

This team is world champion, it's joke, i never see a such bad team winning a word cup, they have made two goods games in this tournament against czech republic and germany and it's all. And they had not played great teams like Brazil.

I don't want to see an italian teams anymore, because to loose against a good team is acceptable, but to loose against one of the worst team of this world cup and in the history, is too much for me. Football is finished for me, i don't want to see the revenge in the stade de france, if we win it's good, but i even don't want to see it. I want to see football matches not cheatings matchs.

by the victory of Italy in a world cup, the football is discredited, it's not a fair sport. This players played for the clubs who are relegated, that's the conclusion of the football for me. It's not fair, smell bad. By this you understand that teams will never win a world cup even it's the best team of the tournament. There are too cheatings.

Don't you think you are being a bit hard on Italy. Sure they had some bad moments in the WC, but still this whole tournament was full of surprises. You cannot blame the whole team because of just a few bad apples like Materazzi. Still though Z should have held his anger and unleashed it during the rest of the match or perhaps on the shootout where he could have just told Italy **** you and taken the world cup and all the prestige and would have been on top.

Max P ....you act like you are new on this forum...What i have understand so far is ...You can't speak about football with Rc_Lens. He is not able to make a rational, not-one-sided speech about this WC.
He thinks France is the best team ever seen on a World Cup since 1928.

You know...He is not believable. It's like speaking with Maradona about war against cocaine ...

Hi Frogg,
the fact is that I've always considered Zidane as a champion, smart, calculator (a bit like what Senna was for F1), Materazzi is a very good player but he has not a 10th of the experience Zidane has.
If you think that was his farewell match, a final for a world cup, he was one of the main players in the pitch, the last thing you expect from him was a reaction like that.
Consider also that he's very well use to the heavy insults during the match. I think insults fly all over the pitch in every match in whatever country, definetely in Italy, anyway, and he played in Italy for 5 years for a team loved by 50% of the people and insulted by the rest (just to give you an idea, this statement is not statistically valid).

When they started insulting each other, I had the feeling that when he overreacted he was not that "out of his head", evidence is the fact that he did not hit to injure, he could have hit Materazzi in his nose...

I'm not convinced he did it on purpose but I have the doubt though...

RC, maybe you forgot that France scored on a penalty (I won't say doubt pen 'cause later on there was another half a foul in our box so it's acceptable that 2 half a fould make a pen), Italy scored a proper, good goal.

France was better than Italy for most of the second half and the 2 extra-times, we were better the 1st half but a football match is not won by the team that is better for more minutes.

We lost the final of Euro2000 after we dominated but the last 10 seconds (which are part of the match anyway), Wiltord scored and during the extra-time Trezeguet scored the golden goal which gave you the title.

RC, the last thing, you don't imagine how good is to discuss with people instead of shooting non-sense sentences all around.

You can talk too, you americans, your 7 victories of Armstrong who had a cancer in the tour de France is bizarre too, we don't see american cyclists before Greg Lemon et since they're many americans in the first places, it's like athletism , Lendis had a hip necrosis and he will win the tour de France. i never see a man who had a disease be on the top of the cyclism, it's already too hard for a man with a good health.

You destroy the sport, i don't like you.

Where did u find such a stupid guy like Lens? Italy deserved to lose against Ghana, Usa, c. Republic, Australia, Ukraine, Germany and France. What does he take to be so incompetent about football? What's his problem in life? He definitely has some major problems he cannot overcome and thinks only talking bad about Italy (out of jealousy) can make him feel (for a short while) better.

The words of Rc Lens : We are the best,Zidane is the best player,Italy the worst team


The Reality:France 2nd,Materazzi more intelligent than zidane,Italy world Champion

U Think that France It's better than Italy ?No problem that's your opinion but we have the cup
and u have........ehm.....nothing.Who is the loser ?

Hi guys,i'm new in this forum.I can't understand all the polemics about materazzi.I am not a fan of materazzi and it is obvious that behaviours like that are troublesome but the football players insult themselves in all the world.zidane has won the world cup,the european cup,he is an expert player and he know it.so, what we have to say about totti in the european cup of 2004?he has been insulted and kicked by poulsen all the match.everyone have condemned it for a spit.so,or the justice is the same for everyone or not.I have to think that zidane receive a special treatment only because he is zidane.why blatter didn't have rewarded italy in the final ceremony ?

Ha ha ha who says the truth ? it's me. LENDIS was DOPED, italian and american cheaters, you are well together, you destroy the sport but soon the honnest nations will triumph again

Hey guys,
finally the unanswered question is:

How possible do you think it is that Zidane did all that mess on purpose?

RC, do you think it could be possible that Zidane, by doing that on purpose, actually cheated on us all but above all on the french national team and people?

Think about it and if you decide to give a logical answer, try to give it in an educated way.
It's not difficult.

AZZURRI CAMPIONI!!!!!!

mmm...what reasons would he have had to do what he did deliberately , do you mean he thought of doing the headbutt before the match or what , please can you elaborate more.

His exit was far more "noisy" with that reaction than without.
The whole world is talking about it, a good part of the people thinks he's a victim, even the ones who never cared about football, are discussing about this issue.
All of his contracts were renewed, I don't know whether all of them would have been renewed without that mess which put him at the centre of the attention worlwide.
He actually gained in celebrity.

If you look at the match, there was no irritation up to that moment and if you look at his reaction, he did not look like he was "out of his head"...

If you look at it form a different perspective, at a stage he may have looked like he found the excuse to do what he did.

Again, he was very much used to the insults during the important matches (he played 5 years for Juventus, one of the most popular, thus also insulted teams in Italy) and he never reacted like that, how comes that exactly the last 10 minutes of his careeer he did so for "heavy insulting" and, at the end, those insults are completely normal here.

In two words he managed to turn the competition between two teams into an inter-counry clash, only verbal, of course and he was (is) at the centre.

Much better than any other form of self-pubblicity.

This is only a theory which will remain a theory.

lens

the first game italy deserved to win
2 horrible game still more chances for us than the americans

3australuia-italy what game did you watch? the only decent chances were italian

4 italy-Ukraine3-0..nop further comments

5 Italy beat 2-0 gernmany great game

Italy -france. we played better the first half.france the second and extra time

all in all we played much better than france during the tournament!!!

so once and for all shut up....