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18 years ago, on July 9, 2006, Zinedine ZidaneAs a player, it ended in the most unexpected way.
He was sent off in extra time in the World Cup final. The Argentine referee who waved the card at him, Horacio Elizondo, has not forgotten this moment that marked the history of world football. He recounted it in detail to the French newspaper Le Parisien.
“In fact, it was a fairly calm final, relatively normal, without any particular hostility, even in extra time,” Elizondo recalled.
In the World Cup final in Germany, Zidane’s France faced Italy. Regular time ended with one goal.
It’s like a movie with a pre-written script and two actors playing the main scenes.
2006 World Cup: Zidane’s legendary headbutt
Zinedine Zidane After Materazzi fouled in the penalty area, Panenka scored a goal. Materazzi equalized the score for Italy. There were more than ten minutes left in extra time, and we still found these two people.
Zidane headbutted the Italian and was sent off by the referee. It was the final game and undoubtedly the best of his career. In the penalty shootout, France, without Zidane, lost.
The referee was calm as he penalised the France captain for his actions, but admitted he felt “sad” for the player afterwards.
“I saw Zidane walk past the trophy with his head down and it made me feel bad for him. I put myself in his shoes: he was the best player at the World Cup and it was the last game of his career… He always behaved like a master on and off the pitch. »
Even in this unique moment, Zidane remained true to his style. He accepted the decision without hesitation.
“I leave, I’m not going to cause any trouble. But I have a question: do you know what happened before? “, Zidane said simply. The referee asked him to tell the story, but “he turned away without any explanation”.
2026 World Cup: The referee who expelled Zidane tells what happened
What was done and what was done. This action may have resulted in the worst refereeing error in football history. Because of Zidane’s headbutt, almost no one saw it. Neither the referee nor his assistants. It also avoided a large part of the public and focused attention on the penalty area where the play took place.
The referees and FIFA missed something serious. “Can you imagine that four referees would not have seen something like this?”, Horacio Elizondo said.
The referee of the 2006 World Cup final spoke at length about how he had to make such a heavy decision without seeing anything. We are talking about an era when video assistance did not exist yet.
In order to reach Materazzi lying on the ground, the referee had to walk 40 meters. As he ran, he asked his two assistants through the headphones if they saw anything. The answer was no. But there was one person who witnessed it all, that was the fourth referee, Spaniard Luis Medina Cantalejo.
“The number 10 hit the blue jersey in the chest with his head. It was a splitting headache! When you see it on the TV in the hotel, you won’t believe it,” he told her.
World Cup 2026: Who saw Zidane’s headbutt?
The referee did not hesitate afterwards. He explained that he trusted his assistant, who had worked with him for three years. When he watched the video after the game, he found that the header was “scary” and “stronger” than he thought.
A lot has been said about what happened, including the referee’s decision. For example, France coach Raymond Domenech claimed that the fourth referee saw the action on the screen. Elizondo denied it: “No. He saw the action with his own eyes. He warned me immediately and he didn’t have time to look at the screen. Impossible,” he said.
The referee reacted to this moment with the greatest confidence of his career. The whole world saw him running to the first assistant referee. In fact, he filmed it. It was an ingenious idea to make people accept his decision on an action he had never seen. “I already knew that he hadn’t seen anything (…) In fact, I just went to tell him: there are ten minutes left, stay focused,” he revealed.
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