Marco Materazzi has finally revealed what he said to Zinedine Zidane to prompt the then France skipper to head-butt him during the World Cup final.
Zidane, who was playing his last game before retirement, has been reluctant to provide details about what the Italy centre-half had said, only confirming that the comments were of a personal nature and concerned his sister and mother.
Now, nearly two months on, the former Everton defender Materazzi has lifted the lid on his version of events. He told Gazzetta dello Sport that Zidane, who was frustrated by the defender’s shirt-pulling, offered to give the Inter Milan man his jersey after the match.
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“I would prefer your sister,” replied the defender.
“I answered verbally with a provocation to defend myself,” he explained. “Yes, I was tugging his shirt, but when he said to me scornfully ‘If you want my shirt so much I’ll give it to you afterwards,’ is that not a provocation? I answered that I’d prefer his sister, it’s true.
“It’s not a particularly nice thing to say, I recognise that. But loads of players say worse things...I didn’t even know he had a sister before all this happened.”
Materazzi’s revelation comes ahead of the rematch between the two sides tomorrow in a Euro 2008 qualifier.
Both players were fined by Fifa for their part in the row during the final in Berlin on July 9 and Zidane also agreed to complete three days of voluntary work for the world football body because his retirement made a ban pointless.