Marco Materazzi

Marco Materazzi

Personal information
Full name	Marco Materazzi
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	F.C. Internazionale Milano
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 15 November 2006

Marco Materazzi (born August 19, 1973 in Lecce) is an Italian football defender, who currently plays for Serie A club F.C. Internazionale Milano, better known as Inter Milan. He was a part of the Italian team that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Materazzi is considered a tall, tough and hard working defender. Known mostly for his aggressive playing style, Marco Materazzi was a late bloomer. He is known for scoring a lot of goals for a defender. His nickname amongst his team mates, is 'The Matrix', due to his 'complicated' mind.

Club

Materazzi moved his first football steps playing for Messina youth team from 1990-1991. He then spent his early career in the lower divisions of Italian football, with amateur side Tor di Quinto (1991-92), Serie C2 team Marsala Calcio (1993-94), and Serie C1's A.S. Trapani (1994-95), where he narrowly missed a historical promotion to Serie B for his side, losing promotion playoffs to S.S. Gualdo, then coached by Walter Novellino. A.C. Perugia, then in Serie B and coached by Novellino, signed Materazzi for the first time in 1995, but spent a part of the 1996-97 season at Serie C's Carpi F.C. 1909, before coming back to Perugia.

Materazzi then spent 1998-99 with Everton F.C. (where he was sent off three times in just 27 games), before another stint with Perugia, now in the Serie A. He scored 12 goals in the 2000-01 season, breaking Daniel Passarella's Serie A record of most goals by a defender in one season. He was then signed by Inter for 10 million euros.

During those times the media formed for him unjustly a fame of a bully, dirty player of some sorts, but despite that the Inter fans adore him because of his gladiatorial spirit, his very big work rate and spirit for sacrifice.

He got some confrontations, as the infamous one with Cirillo in the underground passage to the dressing rooms where the two of them had a scuffle where Materazzi slightly bruised Cirillo's eye arcade.

At Perugia, he was known for his accurate left-footed free kicks, but with so many good free kick takers at Inter, he rarely gets a chance to take one. Materazzi also excels in long passes to forwards. Materazzi is a significant part of the Inter defence and a key figure for them on the pitch. With Inter, he has won Coppa Italia twice; in 2005 and 2006. He has recently been provided with the opportunity to captain the side due to Javier Zanetti's injury.

Today he is regarded as one of the best and most complete defenders in football. He signed a contract extension in summer 2006, extending the relation with club from 2009 to 2010.

International

His debut for the Italian national side came in 2001 as he played against South Africa. Since then Materazzi has competed in three major tournaments for Italy; playing at the 2002 World Cup, Euro 2004, and 2006 World Cup.

Materazzi has captained Italian national side on two occasions; in a friendly against Finland in November 2004 and another friendly against Iceland in March 2005.

2006 World Cup

Materazzi was a member of the Italian national team that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Materazzi wasn't intended as the first team player, but the injury of Alessandro Nesta allowed him to play a more important role.

He came as a substitute for Nesta in Italy's game against the Czech Republic and scored the first goal of the game with a towering header after a corner kick. He dedicated the goal to midfielder Daniele De Rossi, who had been sent off in the previous match for an elbow, described by Materazzi as a mistake. In the following match, the Round of 16, against Australia, he received a controversial straight red card and was suspended for the next match.

File:Zidane Headbutt.jpg

Screenshot of Zidane hitting Materazzi.

He also featured prominently in Italy's World Cup Final game against France, first causing the penalty that put France ahead, then scoring a headed equalizer from a Pirlo corner kick. Later in the game he was involved in an off-the-ball incident; he was headbutted in the chest by Zinedine Zidane. Zidane confirmed that Materazzi's insults had nothing to do with race or religion and that he sarcastically offered Materazzi his shirt, after Materazzi had pulled it. However, Zidane said that the insult targeted his sister and mother, but Materazzi denied he had insulted Zidane's mother adding that he had lost his own mother at age fifteen, was still hurt by it, and would never think of speaking ill of anybody's mother. The official FIFA investigation fined Materazzi CHF 5000 and suspended him for two matches, while Zidane was fined CHF 7500 and suspended for three matches. On September 5 Materazzi admitted that he indeed insulted Zidane's sister. Zidane had offered Materazzi his shirt after the latter had pulled it. In an interview with Materazzi, he revealed the comment he made to Zidane. "I replied to Zidane that I would prefer his sister, that is true. I brought up his sister and that wasn't a nice thing, that is true". Furthermore, Materazzi claimed that he did not even know Zidane had a sister. Some time later, Materazzi made a public statement of inviting Zidane to his home for a dinner between peers, as an effort to bury the hatchet. He jocularly added that his only condition was that Zidane make good on his offer of the jersey.

Materazzi went on to score Italy's second penalty in the shoot-out, which Italy won 5-3, to win the FIFA World Cup. By scoring two goals for Italy, Materazzi became top team goalscorer alongside with Luca Toni. Several months after the World Cup final Materazzi showed up in a Nike commercial based on what happened between him and Zidane.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	22 June, 2006	Hamburg, Germany	Template:CZEf	2-0	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup
2.	9 July, 2006	Berlin, Germany	Template:FRAf	1-1(AET), 5-3(PSO)	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup
og.	15 November, 2006	Bergamo, Italy	Template:TURf	1-1	Draw	friendly

Trivia

• Materazzi has a large tattoo on his left forearm with the word "LION" and "XIX VIII MCMLXXIII" (his date of birth in Roman numerals)
• Marco's father is Giuseppe Materazzi, who was a former football coach and managed Pisa Calcio, S.S. Lazio, A.S. Bari, Calcio Padova, Brescia Calcio, Piacenza Calcio, Sporting Clube de Portugal and Tianjin Teda.
• Materazzi is married to Daniela and they have 3 children: 2 boys and a girl.
• Materazzi's goal celebration is, he pulls up his jersey and he wears a t-shirt underneath that says "Auguri Davide" which means "wishes Davide" Davide being his son.
• In the 2005-06 season, he was involved in a very comical own goal that allowed Empoli to avoid relegation. [1]
• Materazzi is a fan of S.S. Lazio

External links

• Official Inter Milan profile
• FootballDatabase.com provides Materazzi's profile and stats
• Information on the incident between Materazzi and Zidane