Honours
• UEFA Club Football Awards, Best With Girondins de Bordeaux
Midfielder: 1997-98
• World Soccer Player of the Year:
1998
• FIFA World Player of the Year: 1998,
2000, 2003
• FIFA Silver World Player of the
Year: 2006
• FIFA Bronze World Player of the
Year: 1997, 2002
• European Footballer of the Year
(Ballon d'Or): 1998
• UEFA Champions League Most
Valuable Player: 2001-02
• UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll (Best
European player of the past 50
years): 2004
• FIFA World Cup Golden Ball Award:
2006
• FIFPro World XI Team:2005,2006
• Onze d'Or:1998,2000,2001
• UEFA European Championship Most
Valuable player:2000
• FIFA All-Star Team:1998,2006
• UEFA BEST XI:2001,2002,2003
With France
• FIFA World Cup
o Winner: 1998
o Runner Up: 2006
o Appearances: 1998, 2002,
2006
• European Championship
o Winner: 2000
o Appearances: 1996, 2000,
2004
Serie A Foreign Footballer of the
Preceded by
Year
new creation
1997
• UEFA Cup runners up: 1995/1996
• UEFA Intertoto Cup:1995
With Juventus F.C.:
• Italian League - Serie A champions
(scudetto): 1996/1997, 1997/1998
• European Super Cup: 1996
• Intercontinental Cup: 1996
• Italian Super Cup: 1997
• UEFA Champions League runners
up: 1996/1997, 1997/1998
With Real Madrid:
• Spanish Super Cup: 2001, 2003
• UEFA Champions League:
2001/2002
• Intercontinental Cup: 2002
• Spanish League - La Liga
champions: 2002/2003
• European Super Cup: 2002
Personal honours:
• Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion
d'honneur: since 1998[46]
• Torchbearer for the 2004 Summer
Olympics
• Prince of Asturias Awards
nomination in the Sports category,
2006.[47]
Succeeded by
Ronaldo
 UEFA Champions League Best
Preceded by Succeeded by
Midfielder
Inaugural Winner David Beckham
1997-98

Preceded by World Soccer Player of the Year Succeeded by

Ronaldo 1998 Rivaldo

Preceded by European Footballer of the Year Succeeded by

Ronaldo 1998 Rivaldo

Preceded by FIFA World Player of the Year Succeeded by

Ronaldo 1998 Rivaldo

Preceded by FIFA World Player of the Year Succeeded by

Rivaldo 2000 Luís Figo

Serie A Foreign Footballer of the

Preceded by Succeeded by
Year
Andriy Shevchenko David Trézéguet
2001

UEFA Champions League Most

Preceded by Succeeded by
Valuable Player
Stefan Effenberg Gianluigi Buffon
2001-02

Preceded by FIFA World Player of the Year Succeeded by

Ronaldo 2003 Ronaldinho

Preceded by FIFA World Cup Golden Ball Succeeded by

Oliver Kahn 2006 Incumbent

Confrontation with Marco Materazzi

Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup Final (see
animated image).

In the 110th minute of the 2006 World Cup final against Italy, Zidane was sent off for
headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest in an off the ball incident. The two players
exchanged words before Zidane began to walk away from him. Materazzi then said
something to Zidane, who turned around, made a run-up and head-butted Materazzi in the
chest, sending him to the ground. Although play was halted, referee Horacio Elizondo did
not appear to have seen the confrontation. According to match officials' reports, Fourth
official Luis Medina Cantalejo informed Elizondo of the incident through his earphones.
After consulting his assistant referees, Elizondo showed Zidane the red card and sent him
off.

[edit] Provocation

Since video footage suggested that Materazzi had provoked Zidane, newspapers had lip
readers try to determine what Materazzi had said, coming up with a variety of insults. In
his first, highly awaited comments since the World Cup final, the French soccer star only
partly explained what caused him to react in fury and head-butt an Italian opponent:
repeated harsh insults about his mother and sister.[18] Materazzi admitted insulting Zidane,
but said that Zidane's behaviour had been very arrogant. He stressed that the insults had
been trivial.[19][20] Zidane later stated that Materazzi had seriously and repeatedly insulted
his mother and his sister and that he would "rather have taken a blow to the face than hear
that". He also apologized to viewers, particularly children and educators, but said that he
did not regret his offence because he felt that this would condone Materazzi's actions.[21]
Two months later, in continuing to assert that his comments had been trivial, Materazzi
refused to apologize to Zidane, but stated his desire for reconciliation. He also offered his
version of events, claiming that after he had grabbed Zidane's jersey, Zidane offered it to
him sarcastically, and that he replied to Zidane that he would prefer his sister.[22]
Materazzi later said in an interview with World Soccer Magazine that he had taunted
Zidane about the Frenchman's sister, but did not know he had one.[citation needed]

[edit] Reactions

After the final, President of France Jacques Chirac hailed Zidane as a national hero and
called him a "man of heart and conviction".[23] Chirac later added that he found the
offence to be unacceptable, but that he understood that Zidane had been provoked.[24]
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria expressed his solidarity with Zidane in a letter
of support.[25] French newspaper Le Figaro called the headbutt "odious" and
"unacceptable".[26] The editor-in-chief of French sports daily L'Équipe compared Zidane's
greatness to Muhammad Ali's, but added that Ali, Jesse Owens and Pelé had never
"broken the most elementary rules of sport" as Zidane had. He questioned how Zidane
could explain the offence to "millions of children around the world", but apologized the
following day.[27] A commentator for TIME magazine regarded the incident as a symbol
for Europe's "grappling with multi-culturalism".[28] Zidane's sponsors announced that they
would stick with him.[29] The incident was extensively lampooned on the Internet and in
popular culture; "Coup de Boule", a novelty song written about the incident, reached the
top of the French charts.

FIFA investigation
In light of Zidane's statements, FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings to investigate the
incident.[30] FIFA also affirmed the legality of Horacio Elizondo's decision to send Zidane
off, rejecting claims that fourth official Luis Medina Cantalejo had illegally relied on
video transmission before informing Elizondo about Zidane's misconduct.[31] As a result
of its investigation, FIFA issued a CHF5000 fine and a two-match ban against Materazzi,
while Zidane received a three-match ban and a CHF7500 fine. According to FIFA, both
players had stressed that Materazzi's comments had been defamatory, but not of a racist
nature. Since Zidane was already retired at the time, he voluntarily served three days of
community service on FIFA's behalf, as a substitute for the three-match ban.[32]

[edit]