Zidane and Materazzi, Together Again?

Well Laurie, I read it in ‘The Times of India as Well’ (believe me ‘The Hindu’ is as legit as it gets). For confirmation, here’s a link from South Africa.

Posted from  India

Thanks, Anusree. That must have been the original that the Indian papers pulled from. Sorry for casting aspersions on a legitimate paper.

But I’m still not seeing anything saying that Zidane has AGREED to go (other than the headlines), just that he’s been INVITED. I wonder if it’s just wishful thinking on the part of the organizers.

Guess we’ll all find out on the 18th, eh?

Posted from  United States

Does anyone know if Zidane has apologised yet?

I don’t believe it for a second. I’m sure you’re all aware that Materazzi just filed suit against 3 British papers accusing them of defaming his character and is rehashing that unpleasantness all over again. Why on earth would Zidane want to share the pitch with him? What’s next? is Materazzi going to sue Zidane?
http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/post_group/main/C293

Posted from  United States

I share your incredulity, Laurie and Mia, about this story. I looked at Zidane’s website and there is no mention of this, at least not yet.
The strange thing seems not the invitation to Zidane but to Materazzi! It’s a very fine thing that there is something against racism, and one can see why Zidane would be invited, but Materazzi!?
As Mia mentions, Materazzi is suing various papers for “defamation, even though MM’s history is well documented! really what more does one need to know than his comment denying the “terrorism” insult by saying he didn’t know anything about terrorism! What world does MM live in, where such a comment or a fascist salute is no big deal, y’know just cool or whatever…

Posted from  United States

“Does anyone kno if Zidane has apologizaed yet?”
Well, hoping it wasn’t sarcasm, as far as I know Zidane did apologize to his country for what he did but he also said that he would have done it again if he could… So actually he didn’t apologize.
(I apologize for my bad english btw ; ) )

Now about Materazzi sueing English papers I see some confusion here, let me clarify something.
The day after the WC final some english papers like “the Sun” realized that the headbutt thing was a cashcow because everybody wanted to know what Materazzi told to Zidane, so they INVENTED the racist insult story to give people what they wanted to hear and it worked: they sold millions of copies of theyr papers.
Basically, (at least The Sun said so) they used an “lipsreading” expert form scotland yard (they said ) which stated that Materazzi told to Zidane “son of a terrorist bitch” causing Zidane reaction.
Now this news provocked a huge spamfest in every forum/blog in the world (incliding this blog) where every user was throwing s*it on Materazzi, on the Azzuri, and on Italy (Being called “fascist country” when we actually have been and still are one of the most left winged country in Europe…)

So people around the world had absolutely no doubt about it: that had to be the truth, it couldn’t be different than that (how sad), while the rest of world press which couldn’t count on such “great scotland yard experts” where still argueing if “The Sun” was right or not, so after few days they tried to ask directly to Zidane and Materazzi what did they say to each others: italian press, which btw believed the racist insult story, asked Materazzi if he actually insulted Zidane in that way and Materazzi answered “No I don’t I’m ignorant about those things” (for reference Materazzi didn’t even know that Zidane has berber/algerinian origin). Meanwhile Zidane was still not talking. Why? Because probably he wanted to enjoy seeing Materazzi to “take the rain” (let’s call it rain), then after few days more he finally declared that “Materazzi insulted my women”. Please note that actually this comment still doesn’t exclude the racist phrase spreaded by The Sun.

Meanwhile the italian television began to show the incident with another camera angle that clearly helped to understand what they said to eachother trought lips reading, and it was quite clear:
Materazzi were holding Zidane shirt for a while, Zidane turned if face on Materazzi and smiling told him “Don’t pull my shirt, I know you like it, don’t worry I’m gonna give it to you at the end of the game”, Materazzi which is a d*ic*head, nobody deny that, can’t stand this provocation (because that’s what it is) and answer him “I don’t need your shirt cos I’m fu**ing your sister” (meanwhile Zidane begin to walk away) and he continued “you know, she likes to take it in the *ss” then again the same exact phrase but just louder, then Zidane turn and went with the headbutt.

After some weeks, finally FIFA convoked both players to clarify once for all what happened and it emerged the exact dialogues I’ve described some rows ago, and that can’t be denied because, the versions of both players are essentially identical. Both of them have been disqualified, Zidane of course couldn’t care less cos he quitted, Materazzi by giving his version of the facts ammitted to have insulted Zidane so by rules he must have been disqualified as it happened.
Oh and you will not believe me if I told you that the same papers which invented the racist insult story actually published the true story when this was unvealed by FIFA, LOL but they never said “oh yes we’ve just invented bullsh*ts just to sell some more copies”

Then after that I believed that this story it’s over…
No it’s not :O one year is passed and incredibly there is a lot of misinformed people in the net that is still belive to the racist insult story.
Well then let me tell you that Materazzi is fu**ing right in sueing those papers because the really difamated him!
End of the story.

I don’t mean to be disrespectful to you, Zero, but if your account of what happened is accurate and meant to garner sympathy for Materazzi, I’m afraid it only makes me hate him more. The fact that the insult wasn’t racial doesn’t make him less of a creep. It was still a vulgar insult directed towards a woman.What a Casanova that one, he wants to tear off a woman’s shirt and sodomize her. As I recall, it was only a matter of days until Zidane broke his silence and told the world that no, it wasn’t racially motivated. You’re criticizing Zidane for allowing shit to be dumped on Materazzi during that time…to be blunt, Materazzi deserved it and I think Zidane had bigger problems on his hands than worrying about what people were saying about Materazzi. Your comment that Zidane was enjoying it too much is just ridiculous. Zidane was clearly NOT enjoying much of anything then. Let’s face it, nobody got dumped on more than Zidane in those days -not even Materazzi. Whether you agree with Zidane’s reaction or not, Materazzi WAS the catalyst for what happened. And who really has suffered more in the past year? Zidane !! There are still people who believe that the headbutt destroyed his entire legacy and for people who never heard of him before (the majority of Americans) that’s all he will ever be known for so Zidane has suffered way more. Materazzi seems to have done quite well for himself, hasn’t he? If the whole affair was so traumatizing to him, it hasn’t stopped him from cashing in on it as well, so he’s no better than the British tabloids he is now suing. Now that the hoopla over his tremendous year with Inter has died down I guess he had to figure out a way to keep his name and his ugly face in the spotlight so he decides to play the victim and sue for damages. He hasn’t shut up about it for a year now and has actually joked about it and had his fun at Zidane’s expense! And how interesting that all he says is that he wanted Zidane’s sister’s shirt…according to you, he also wanted to sodomize her - he always neglects to mention this little fact. Are Women’s Rights groups in Italy supportive of him as well? I hope Zidane never apologizes to him. Materazzi is a despicable scumbag.

Posted from  United States

Mia… what Materazzi said was typical tough-guy macho nonsense; it’s still wrong, of course, but it’s not far from what you’d hear casually playing football with men in some places.

Posted from  United States

No wait, I’m not trying to make him look good at all.
I’m just saying that since papers painted him as a racist dic*head when he is just a dic*head he has the rights to sue them. PERIOD

As Mac said those kind of insults are common in every soccer game in every league and at any level professionism, sometimes they cause reactions that lead to brawl, but most of the times they don’t.
Sadly, if FIFA would decide to disqualifie somebody cos of an insult like that one then in a couple of months we will be forced to play 1 vs 1 soccer games due to lack of available players.

Posted from  Italy

All, still this story about Materazzi and Zidane.
Only idiots do not want understand that the idiot was Zidane badly reacting to the words of Matrix. The first learning that baby players (of each type of sport) get from a coach is “DO NOT REACT”. Zidane has been like a first experience baby. Someone is mentioning Women’s right, this is really amazing!!! There are many things much more important in the world than Materazzi words.

Posted from  United States

If Domenech had taken Zidane off when he should have we could have avoided this whole nasty incident but Domenech is an idiot and put way to much pressure on the man. He was forced out of retirement, he was tired, he was injured and he was frustrated..what do you expect? Zidane was so high strung after he missed that header I believe anything would have set him off. Zidane was unable to do anything in that game and he so desperately wanted to be substituted because of his bum shoulder. Shame on you Domenech for not respecting the wishes of your star player.

Posted from  Canada

John, YES, he did apologize — to kids, parents and educators, and said his act was inexcusable. It’s dullards like you who refuse to acknowledge that. He simply refused to apologize to the worthless maggot who with malice aforethought and calculation, deliberately CHOSE to provoke him during a world cup final. Zero’s account from Italian TV is nonsense — Italians tell themselves it was zidane who provoked Materazzi — it was Materazzi who CHOSE to pull on Zidane’s shirt when the ball was nowhere near them. Why does Materazzi pull on Zidane’s shirt when they are both nowhere near the ball in the first place? Zidane gets annoyed, makes a very mild remark (it’s UNBELIEVABLE that anyone argues his remark is a “provocation”) and Materazzi proceeds to repeatedly hurl personal obscenities and insults during a wc final. The man is a lowlife, he deserves no apology.

And NO, Laurie, Zidane has not agreed to this and never will. He wouldn’t debase himself, using this incident to garner publicity. He won’t cooperate in Materazzi’s personal campaign for more publicity. He will never do this kind of thing. Had Materazzi conducted himself differently after the headbutt incident, with some class and grace, this “reconciliation” may have been possible — quietly, away from the cameras. But Matterazzi wants this all in front of the cameras to get more publicity for himself. Zidane’s headbutt is in fact THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO HIM — it’s made his career. He is in fact very very happy that one of the greatest players of the sport — in a totally different league from him — headbutted him in front of the world.

Materazzi has MILKED THIS INCIDENT FOR ALL IT IS WORTH — he’s profitted by it financially (being paid a huge sum of money by Adidas for a TV ad), professionally and personally. He never misses an opportunity to talk about the headbutt in every single interview. This recent lawsuit is just another such example of this — it’s more cheap vulgar publicity for this lowlife scumbag. This is all that he is about now — the headbutt.

Contrast that to the way zidane has conducted himself since retiring — constantly travelling as a football ambassador to poor countries, helping to promote community projects in impoverished areas, working with children’s charities, lending his name to worthy causes, playing in charity games (futsal included), and just getting on with his life in a dignified, discreet manner.

And azzuro, go back to the italy blog where people make only sex jokes and don’t even talk about football.

Posted from  United States

Mia, you’re way off. Zero is closer to the truth. That was a clear case of defammation of character. In fact, the entire Italian soccer federation - if it chooses - could have taken action but chose not to make more an issue since the French went into PR overdrive. On a side note, as a soccer historian, it has been lamentable to hear all the negative and misguided assertions hurled upon Italian soccer. Most, if not all, is plainly inaccurate - especially when one consults history. As for 2006, recall that the French players were calling Italians racist (even though most of the Italian players were known to be quiet types). FIFA’s investigation cleared all this. In other words, they flat our lied. Zidane - who wasn’t very liked in France before 1998 - is the real creep AND WITH A HISTORY OF THIS STUFF. He gets a pass for his VIOLENT actions? Materrazzi has never attacked anyone in this manner. As far as I am concerned, after playing soccer at a hich level for a long time, you’re a fragile individual to crack like that over a distasteful comment that is uttered thouands of time - ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THAT ZIDANE KNEW HIM AND PLAYED IN ITALY. It’s not like all this was a mystery to him. Materrazzi ain’t no angel (I said that there would be an international incident involving him before the tourney started) but in the end Zidane NEVER STOOD up for his actions. That was a cop out on French TV and this told me much about him as a person. Thank God, the French soccer magazines were having none of it. They objectively and smartly picked the final game and saw the game behind the game. To pure football fans I can’t see how this guy remains a hero. He dishonored the excellent French soccer tradition by himself and Domenech is a poor tactical coach who has shown he lacks more class than anyone combined. Can this guy ever shut up? Start producing PROOF Raymond. Everything that has come out of his mouth has been proven wrong. SOUR GRAPES. As if Italy did not lose to France in the most tragic of circumstances in the past. Sadly, this should not have happened between these two sophisticated nations. France and its program deserve better. Where’s Didier Deschamps when you need him, eh? Now that’s class. LET’S ALL MOVE ON SHALL WE?

Posted from  Canada

I believe Zidane put himself before his team. We lacked true leadership. On the other side of the ball Carnavarro always kept a level head and tried to keep the other players calm and focused. Matarazzi has always been a problem and he obviously wasn’t the first choice for Italy, he wouldn’t have played at all had it not been for Nesta’s injury. I have many Italian friends and I can tell you they felt regret at the way this ended and nobody took Matarazzi’s side because they would expect that sort of behavior from Matarazzi but Zidane is captain and his act was completely selfish and stupid. I would advise you stubborn French fans to drop this silly facade regarding Zidane’s actions. I really don’t think any of you would have excused Matarazzi if it was the other way around. I think it’s just a matter of the media wanting people to chose sides and argue about it, i mean look at us we’re still talking about it! Let’s just put this whole affair to rest and just accept that France had too many weaknesses and our opponent exploited every one of them. France will be better off without Zidane and all his media hype distractions. Allez Les Bleus!

One more thing regarding this comment “..with malice aforethought and calculation, deliberately CHOSE to provoke him during a world cup final”

We don’t know that sandrahn, you are just making assuptions. I completely respect your opinions but I think you are just speaking out of anger. We don’t know if this was premeditated or calculated, we just don’t know. Making these sort of assuptions just creates more tension and animosity between both sides and that is what we should be trying to avoid.

Posted from  Canada

Does M23 or his worshiper have a life, other than demanding an apology from Z10?

Posted from  China