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Marco Materazzi

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Marco Materazzi
Personal information
Height 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Position(s) Defender
Team information
Current team
 Internazionale
Number 23
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of June 9, 2008

Marco Materazzi, Cavaliere Ufficiale OMRI[2][3] (born August 19, 1973 in Lecce), is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who currently plays for Serie A club Internazionale. He was a part of the Italy squad that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which ended in controversy after he was headbutted by Zinedine Zidane during the final.

Early life and club career

Materazzi was born in Lecce, where his father Giuseppe was playing for local side US Lecce. Giuseppe was also a former football coach and manager of teams such as Pisa Calcio, Lazio, Sporting C.P. and Tianjin Teda. Marco was a Lazio fan during his father's stint as Lazio manager in the late 1980s.[4]

He began his footballing career with the F.C. Messina Peloro youth team from 1990 to 1991. He spent his early career in the lower divisions of Italian football, with amateur side Tor di Quinto (1991-92), Serie C2 team S.C. Marsala 1912 (1993-94), and Serie C1 Trapani (1994-95), where he narrowly missed a historical promotion to Serie B after losing a promotion playoff to S.S. Gualdo.

Serie B squad Perugia Calcio signed Materazzi for the first time in 1995, but spent a part of the 1996-97 season in Serie C with Carpi F.C. 1909, before coming back to Perugia. He then spent 1998-99 with Everton F.C., where he was sent off four times in just 27 games, then once again returned to Perugia. 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 Milan for €10m. Materazzi finished the 2006-07 season as the top scoring defender of Serie A with 10 goals. A lot of his goals come from penalties. He signed a contract extension in 2006 that will keep him with Inter until 2010. Materazzi made his 150th appearance for Inter in a 2-0 win over Atalanta B.C. on April 6, 2008.

International career

Materazzi started the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals as a reserve player, but after Alessandro Nesta suffered an injury in the group match against Czech Republic, he was brought back in the starting lineup. He was sent off with a red card in the round of 16 match against Australia and was suspended for Italy's quarterfinal match against Ukraine. In the WC final against France, he conceded a penalty but later tied the match 1-1 with a header. He also scored Italy's second penalty in the shootout after the match remained tied after extra time.

During the extra-time period, Materazzi was headbutted in the chest by Zinedine Zidane, who was then sent off. Zidane had accused him for insulting his sister and mother, but during a press conference following the event, Materazzi lied that after he had grabbed Zidane's jersey, Zidane offered it to him sarcastically. Materazzi then replied, "I prefer the whore that is your sister," which resulted in the headbutt. He later claimed he did not know that Zidane even had a sister. [5][6]

International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 22 June 2006 Hamburg, Germany  Czech Republic 2-0 Win FIFA World Cup 2006
2 9 July 2006 Berlin, Germany  France 1-1(AET), 5-3(PSO) Win FIFA World Cup 2006

Honours

Internazionale

International

Personal

Notes

  1. ^ Source: FIFA World Cup official site
  2. ^ FIFA.com
  3. ^ AscotSportal.com
  4. ^ "Materazzi e i tifosi laziali: amore finito?" (in Italian). Real Soccer. 2006-05-14. Retrieved 2007-05-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Materazzi reveals details of Zidane World Cup slur". Reuters. 5 September 2006. Retrieved 2008-02-02.
  6. ^ "And Materazzi's exact words to Zidane were..." Guardian Unlimited. 18 August 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
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