Materazzi Marco
Marco Materazzi is an Italian former professional footballer. At the beginning of his career, Materazzi played with various Italian teams in Serie B and Serie C, and with Everton in the Premier League. He spent two periods with Perugia (1995–98 and 1999–2001) and signed for Internazionale, in 2001 for €10 million. At club level, he won a number of major honors with Inter including five Serie A league titles in a row from 2006 to 2010, one UEFA Champions League, one FIFA Club World Cup, four Coppa Italia titles, and the Supercoppa Italiana four times.Materazzi earned 41 caps for Italy from his debut in 2001 until 2008, playing in two World Cups and two European Championships. He was one of the key players in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final against France, as he scored Italy’s goal and later, in extra time, he received a headbutt from Zinedine Zidane, who was punished with a red card. Italy then went on to win the World Cup in a penalty shoot-out, during which Materazzi scored again. The Times placed Materazzi at number 45 in their list of the 50 hardest football players in history. During the 2006–07 season, Materazzi was voted the Serie A Defender of the Year.
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Marco Materazzi returned to Perugia in 1999 from Everton. He played most of the games of the 1999-2000 season and 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.
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Materazzi was signed by Internazionale in 2001 for €10 million. In the season 2006/ 2007 he finished the season as the top scoring defender of Serie A with 10 goals, including a double away to Siena on 22 April which won the club’s 15th league title with five games remaining. These wrist bands were the ones he used in the game against Siena so they represent an authentic piece of history of Internazionale F.C.
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During his career, especially after the World Cup 2006 Marco Materazzi used different wrist bands in every game he played. He used to have his kids names on and match details. He used perhaps different styles and different colors, with and without Italy’s flags. See the pictures aside to see some different kind of wrist bands he used over his career.
“I would rather die’ than apologise to Marco Materazzi” Zinedine Zidane
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An aggressive, physical, and hard-tackling centre-back, who was also known for his tight marking of opponents, Materazzi was considered to be one of the best defenders of his generation, and was highly regarded by two of the world’s most respected coaches, Marcello Lippi and José Mourinho, later becoming close friends with both managers. Materazzi was lauded by his managers in particular for being a goal threat as a defender, due to his outstanding aerial ability, which made him dangerous during set pieces. His prolific goalscoring allowed him to capture the record for most goals in a Serie A season by a defender, which was broken during the 2000–01 season. He was also an accurate set piece and penalty kick taker, with a powerful shot from distance. In addition to these attributes, he had solid technical skills and reliable distribution, and was known for frequently playing long balls to the strikers. During his time with Internazionale, he developed the nickname Matrix.
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Materazzi started the 2006 FIFA World Cup as a reserve player, but after Alessandro Nesta suffered an injury in the group match against the Czech Republic, Materazzi came on as his replacement and made an impact by scoring a goal, and was named Man of the Match. He received a red card in the round of 16 match against Australia for a foul on Mark Bresciano, which ended in a 1–0 win to the Italians, and was suspended for the quarter-final against Ukraine, which Italy won 3–0. In the final against France, Materazzi fouled Florent Malouda to concede a dubious penalty, which Zinedine Zidane subsequently scored. He made another impact by scoring a goal to level the score, a header from a right sided corner by Andrea Pirlo. After the match went to extra-time, Materazzi and Zidane were involved in a confrontation in the 110th minute, where Materazzi verbally insulted Zinedine Zidane alongside tugging his shirt while Zidane attempted to walk away, which ended with Zidane head-butting Materazzi and receiving a red card. The game then continued to penalties. Materazzi scored Italy’s second penalty as they defeated France 5–3 to claim their fourth FIFA World Cup. After the final, the confrontation resulted in a major controversy as Zidane accused Materazzi of insulting his sister and mother. Additionally, Materazzi claimed that after he had grabbed Zidane’s jersey, Zidane sarcastically said to him “If you want my shirt, I will give to you afterwards”. Materazzi then revealed that he replied, “Preferisco la puttana di tua sorella” (I would prefer your whore of a sister), which resulted in the head-butt. Three British tabloid newspapers, the Daily Star, the Daily Mail and The Sun, alleged that Materazzi had called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore.” Materazzi took legal action against all three newspapers and the allegations were later withdrawn. FIFA later issued a CHF 5,000 fine and a two-match ban against Materazzi. Alongside striker Luca Toni, Materazzi was Italy’s top scorer throughout the tournament with two goals; he also won 14 challenges throughout the competition.
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These wrist bands were used by Marco Materazzi during the “Euro 2008” qualifying game against Lithuania which took place on June 6th 2007. Under Roberto Donadoni, new Italy team’s coach after Marcello Lippi who left after the World Cup 2006, Materazzi appeared consistently during the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign and became a starter after Alessandro Nesta’s retirement.
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Materazzi was then signed by Internazionale for €10 million. He finished the 2006–07 season as the top scoring defender of Serie A with 10 goals, including a double away to Siena on 23 April which won the club’s 15th league title with five games remaining. Materazzi was an injury-time substitute for Inter in the 2010 UEFA Champions League Final against Bayern Munich, replacing Diego Milito who scored both of their goals in the 2–0 victory in Madrid. Materazzi declared his retirement from international football in the summer of 2011 and was appointed in the role of ambassador to Inter.
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in 2012 the French artist Adel Abdessemed dedicated to the (un)famous Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt against Marco Materazzi a 16.4 ft. tall bronze sculpture. It was unveiled on 26 September 2012 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. The sculpture called “Headbutt” depicts the incident that took place in the 110th minute of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final between France and Italy, when Zinedine Zidane headbutted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest, after he had verbally provoked him. Zidane consequently received a red card and was sent off. France lost the match, which was Zidane’s final match as a professional footballer.As France subsequently lost the match, exhibition organiser Alain Michaud has described it as “…against the tradition of making statues in honour of certain victories. It is an ode to defeat”. In November 2012, Materazzi posed for a photo in front of the statue, and uploaded it to Twitter with the post “I Love Haters”. As part of Qatar Museums Authority public art program the sculpture was brought to Doha for an undisclosed amount on 4 October 2013, intended to be permanently installed on the Corniche near Al Mourjan restaurant. However the sculpture was removed on 30 October, owing to criticism from Islamic conservatives who complained that glorifying the infamous act of violence set a bad example for local youth and bordered on idolatry. It was then moved into the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha.
