Remembering Zinedine Zidane's Anti-Hollywood Ending at the 2006 World Cup Final
By Ali Rampling
On 9 July 2006, Lily Allen's Smile knocked Shakira's Hips Don't Lie off top spot in the UK charts. It is a testament to the World Cup final served up by France and Italy that this isn't considered the day's most controversial event.
After 120 minutes, two goals, eight successful spot kicks and one notorious head butt, the curtain came down on the 2006 World Cup, with Italy crowned world champions for the first time since 1982.
The final was a story of redemption and fatal decision making.
Italy's World Cup campaign had been shrouded in pessimism, with the country's domestic league embroiled in the infamous Calciopoli match fixing scandal. For France meanwhile it was the perfect farewell for the majestic Zinedine Zidane. The king of elegance had announced he was to retire at the end of the World Cup and the stage was set for him to bow out with a bang.
These were seriously good French and Italian sides too. Watching the camera pan over the two sides as they link arms during their national anthems, it really is a smorgasbord of mid noughties footballing finery.
While Zidane was the headline act, tailor made to be the hero of the piece, he was joined by Patrick Vieira, Claude Makelele, Thierry Henry and a 23-year-old Franck Ribery, while Italy lined up with Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo and Francesca Totti. Shiny Panini stickers the lot of them.
The final began by following the Hollywood script to a fine detail; Florent Malouda is brought down in the area by Marco Materazzi and a penalty is awarded. Step forward the readymade hero. Zidane has the audacity to pull off a Panenka penalty in the World Cup final against one of the greatest goalkeepers on the planet. And he only just pulls it off, the spot kick bouncing down off the bottom of the crossbar and over the line to give France the lead.
It's the first goal Italy have conceded since the group stages. But they have a more understated magician of their own, and from Pirlo's floated corner, Italy level through Materazzi's header. What a rollercoaster evening the Italian centre half is having, I wonder if he'll make any more telling contributions to proceedings?
Luca Toni rattles the bar from another Pirlo corner before the first half is out, leaving the game finely poised after 45 minutes.
The second half sees the Italians frustrate France, with defensive midfielder Gennaro Gattuso harrying and pressing and snapping at Zidane's heels. But this is just how the Hollywood script would play out - the initial frustration followed by the spectacular finale.
A compelling 90 minutes finishes all square, the game heads to extra time and it looks as if Zidane is finally going to get his Hollywood ending.
The Frenchman darts past Gattuso and sprays the ball out wide to marauding fullback Willy Sagnol on the right flank. The cross comes in and Zidane has timed his run perfectly to meet it with his head. His powerful header is goal bound; the perfect end to the perfect script to conclude the perfect career.
But just as Zidane's header hangs in the air, the Hollywood director orchestrating the piece is pushed out of his chair, and in march Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Shane Meadows. Time to dial down the happy ending and turn up the grit.
Zidane's header is spectacularly tipped over the bar by Buffon. The Frenchman screams in anguish.
And then in the second period of extra time, with just 12 minutes of the World Cup final - and Zidane's footballing career - remaining, Waller-Bridge and Meadows burn the Hollywood script for good.
The midfielder exchanges words with Materazzi (remember him? Not just a periphery character after all...) and then turns around and head butts him square in the chest.
In May 2020, Materazzi finally lifted the lid and revealed what actually happened: "After the third clash, I frowned and he retorted: 'I'll give you my shirt later'. I replied that I'd rather have his sister than his shirt."
This was pre-VAR and the referee had not seen the incident. It took him a full two minutes of conversation with his ear piece - difficult to imagine a decision taking that long to make today - before he dismissed Zidane, bringing the all-time great's World Cup final and career to a premature, untimely, and very un-Hollywood end.
Zidane trudges off past the World Cup trophy, which the Italians would later go onto lift after a penalty shootout masterclass.
David Trezeguet was the man to miss for France, his spot kick crashing against the cross bar. But the forward's unsuccessful penalty panders into insignificance in comparison to Zidane's antics, who had very much upstaged Trezeguet as the villain of the piece.
The 2006 World Cup final left us with many questions. The main one is if even Zinedine Zidane can't get a Hollywood ending, what hope is there for the rest of us?