Marco Materazzi Reflects on His Incident With Zinedine Zidane
The former Italian footballer mourned the Tenerife striker's death and linked the tragedy to Zidane's headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final.
The former Italian footballer and coach Marco Materazzi has lamented the death of Tenerife striker Jesús de Miguel and said it made him "thank God" that nothing serious happened to him after the famous headbutt from Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final in Germany.
"Jesús de Miguel's death made me thank God that nothing had happened. In that goalkeeper's case they are talking about involuntary manslaughter for an intervention during the game. What if it had happened to me?", he confesses in an interview published this Thursday in the Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Materazzi lamented the death of the 30-year-old Club Deportivo Tenerife footballer, which occurred on November 3, after he suffered a strong impact with the Andorra goalkeeper, Jesús Owono, a day earlier during a LaLiga Hypermotion (Segunda) match.
The memory of Zidane's headbutt
The Italian assures the 'Gazzetta' that he has "never" had a problem making peace with the current France coach, who has also recently stated that he is not proud of that assault.
The meeting in Milan and the peace that never came
This despite the fact that in November 2010 they had the opportunity to make peace on the eve of a Milan-Real Madrid match in the Italian city.
"The occasion presented itself, as is well known. November 2010, Meliá hotel in Milan, the eve of the Milan-Real Madrid match: I leave the hotel after having greeted (Jose) Mourinho; he is parking the car at the back. When he sees me, he seems a little undecided and even turns around, as if to go back the way he had come. But I walk towards him, shake his hand and say: 'I'm glad we meet here, where no one can see us'," he recalled.
