Metarazzi tweaked his nipple!

What was he thinking?! I couldn't believe it and sat numb for a few minutes as the realization set in that what should've been a fitting end to a glorious career, turned into a horrible, horrible nightmare.

Football is a funny old game. Zidane's future was decided by two unrelated incidents separated by minutes. Had his first header found the back of the net, the French would've been celebrating yet another world cup and would owe it all to the greatest footballer of our generation, Zinedine Zidane. As it turns out, his header was saved, and his second header unfortunately was on Metarazzi's chest.

The most logical explanation seems to be that Materazzi was taking the piss out of Zidane for his header which Buffon saved minutes earlier, a bit of gentle teasing, which Zidane laughs off. Then as Zidane walks away, Materazzi adds snidely 'I'll give you a lesson in heading like my goal'. Zidane responds by demonstrating to Materazzi he can head just fine thanks.

Reports from France suggest the following is the exchange that took place between the two.

Zidane holding his shirt says to to Materazzi:

ZZ: "Ordinanza de tirare il costume!!" (stop pulling on my shirt!!)

MM": "Taciti, enculo, hai solamente cio che merite..." (shut up f*cker, you only get what you deserve)

ZZ: "si e cio..." (yes, sure...)

While Zidane starts to move away, Materazzi goes:
MM: "meritate tutti ciò, voi gli enculato di musulmani, sporchi terroristici" (all of you deserve that, f*cking Muslims, terrorist b*stards)

Personally, I still have respect and admiration for theman. He's a great player, with a great career and great achievements. Yet still he put his reputation aside to give effect to his spur of the moment flash of anger and give Materazzi what he (probably) deserved. Without fear of the global stage he was performing on he stood up for himself and put honour before reputation. Maybe he let his team down, but personally I doubt he'll have many regrets. He's proved that not only is he a great player, but also that nobody f*cks with him either

*Raises glass to Zizou*

Violence with class.