France’s head coach Zinedine Zidane said he has no regrets about the infamous World Cup final headbutt ahead of the clash against Italy on Friday in the UEFA Nations League. Twenty years ago, Zidane smashed a headbutt into the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi, who went flying backwards in extra time.
The talisman Frenchman received a red card for his aggressive actions and France went on to suffer a 0-1 loss against the Italians. Later, Zidane revealed that Materazzi was saying bad words about his mother and sister, and he could not resist attacking the Italian.
That was Zidane’s final appearance in France’s jersey, and his impressive career ended with a red card.
“The images always remind me of it, they’re shown over and over again,” Zidane said Thursday at a pre-match news conference. “But luckily that’s not all I ever did and there are other [images] that are nicer.”
Zidane still does not regret what he did.
“They’re not regrets. It’s part of my career. I’m not proud of what happened, but you can’t always do just good things,” he said. “We’re all on a journey in life, where [sometimes] you do things that aren’t the best. But now it’s about what comes next.”
The former Real Madrid player said he thought he would be remembered for the incident, as he didn’t know he was going to take up the coaching role.
“Yes, because I didn’t know I was going to become coach. So for me it was the end, and I can say things were very, very difficult,” Zidane recalled. “I’m ready to come back and coach the France team, I want to give everything I have.”
France has won two games in the UEFA Nations League, registering 1-0 wins against Turkiye and Belgium.
“It’s a very emotional moment,” Zidane added. “We’re ready for this third match, we’ve prepared well, there are no particular problems. We’re going to try to win in front of our fans.”
Ousmane Dembélé will once again lead France in the absence of the injured Kylian Mbappé.
