Zidane's Two Finals: Two Headers in 1998, One in 2006

Zinedine Zidane played in two World Cup finals, eight years apart, and each one turned on something he did with his head. In 1998, at Stade de France, he rose above Brazil's back line twice in the first half and scored both times, the only player ever to head in two goals in a single World Cup final. In 2006, in Berlin, he opened the scoring with an audacious penalty, then in the 110th minute of a match he had all but won, he turned and drove his forehead into Marco Materazzi's chest. He was sent off. France lost on penalties. Same player, same stage, eight years apart, and two of the most replayed moments in the tournament's history sitting at opposite ends of what a career can do to a reputation.

1998: two headers, eighteen minutes apart

France went into the final against Brazil at Stade de France on 12 July 1998 as hosts who had not lost a knockout match, but Brazil arrived with Ronaldo, the tournament's outstanding player, and were favourites. The game turned in France's favour from set pieces. In the 27th minute, Emmanuel Petit swung a corner in from the right and Zidane climbed above Brazil's Leonardo to head it past goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel. A minute before half-time, France won another corner, this one taken from the left by Youri Djorkaeff, and Zidane rose again, this time heading the ball in through the legs of Roberto Carlos to make it 2-0 at the break.

Final score

France 3-0 Brazil

Zidane's goals

27th minute, 45+1th minute (both headers)

Third goal

Emmanuel Petit, 90+3rd minute

Venue

Stade de France, Saint-Denis

Attendance

80,000

Referee

Said Belqola (Morocco)

Brazil never recovered the game after half-time, and Petit added a third in stoppage time to finish it 3-0. It remains France's only World Cup title from that generation, and it was won by a player from Marseille's immigrant quarters, born to Algerian parents, scoring the two goals that mattered most with a part of his game nobody associated with him before that night. Zidane was not known as a header of the ball. He was known for close control, for the roulette turn that bears his name, for a first touch that made space where none existed. Two goals with his head, in a World Cup final, against Brazil, changed how the rest of that tournament and the years after it were remembered.

the eight years between

Zidane won the Ballon d'Or that same year, moved to Real Madrid in 2001 for what was then a world-record fee, and won the Champions League with a volley against Bayer Leverkusen that is still shown as one of the great individual goals in the competition's history. By 2006 he had already told the football world his career was ending: in April that year he confirmed he would retire after the World Cup in Germany, closing out a contract at Real Madrid that was already in its final months. He was 34, past his peak by most measures, and France travelled to Germany with a squad many judged too old to win it. Zidane answered that directly, driving France from the group stage through to a semi-final win over Portugal and into a second World Cup final against Italy in Berlin.

2006: a Panenka, then the 110th minute

Zidane put France ahead inside seven minutes with a penalty, chipped down the middle in the Panenka style, the ball clipping the underside of the crossbar on its way in. Materazzi equalised for Italy in the 19th minute, heading in a corner, and the score stayed 1-1 through 90 minutes and into extra time. It was in the second period of extra time, the 110th minute, with both sides still level and the game heading toward penalties, that Zidane and Materazzi exchanged words while jogging back up the pitch. Zidane spun and headbutted Materazzi in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Referee Horacio Elizondo had not seen the contact himself; the fourth official spotted it and relayed it to him. Zidane was shown a straight red card and walked off, the last action of his career.

Italy won the shootout 5-3. David Trezeguet was the only taker on either side to miss, his shot cracking the underside of the crossbar and not going in; Fabio Grosso scored the kick that won it. Materazzi, who had also scored Italy's equaliser, ended the night on the winning side twice over. Zidane did not take part in the shootout - he had already been sent from the field before it began.

what was actually said

What provoked the headbutt stayed disputed for years and was only settled by the two players themselves, long after the final whistle. Materazzi has said that as Zidane jogged past him near the end of extra time and offered to swap shirts after the match, he replied, "I'd prefer your sister" - a crude jibe at Zidane's sister that Materazzi later confirmed as the trigger. Zidane gave his own account days later on Canal+, without repeating the words, saying only that the insult was aimed at his mother and his sister and was repeated two or three times before he reacted.

I would rather have taken a punch in the jaw than have heard that.

Zinedine Zidane, Canal+ interview, July 2006

Zidane refused to call the headbutt a regret in that same interview, arguing that regretting it would mean accepting Materazzi had been right to say what he said. "The guilty party is the one who provokes," he said. Despite the sending-off, FIFA still awarded him the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player - voted on before the final, and unaffected by how it ended for him personally.

same player, two finals

Football rarely hands a career a tidy shape, and Zidane's two finals refuse to resolve into one either. The header king of 1998 and the man sent off in 2006 are the same person, eight years and one long, celebrated career apart, and neither moment cancels the other out. France do not win their first World Cup without those two headers in Saint-Denis. Zidane does not leave the game the way he did without the 110th minute in Berlin. Both are true, both are permanent, and both are still what people mean when they say his name in the same sentence as a World Cup final. That is the standard the biggest match in football keeps setting - not a clean story, but a real one - and it's part of why the moment the next final is decided is worth marking properly, which is the whole idea behind War of Soccer.