A famous French biographer of Zizou, who wrote "The Secret Life of Zidane" was on Italian TV last night with two fairly startling revelations.
Apparently, Zidane was incredibly tense and angry for the World Cup final, not just because of the importance of the match, but that he had a big fight with his wife. There was high tension among the French squad as well, as the squad because increasingly on edge and factional as they progressed through the tournament. He missed a second goal (following a brilliant Gigi save) which irritated him even more, and in this case, Materazzi took the brunt of all the anger.
"For Zidane, it was terrible because he had prepared a t-shirt under his jersey with all sorts of thanks: To Juve, to Italy, to his parents, to his coaches. He wanted to take a lap around the stadium with this t-shirt, instead he left the pitch with a low head, in a truly terrible manner."
Surprising, as I thought when he left Juventus, it kind of ended with distaste in both sides. He's certainly not the most popular player in Torino. (though not hated either) Personally, I have always said that Zidane is the greatest technical player I have ever watched. (in my relatively short life thus far) About two years ago, I wrote a post about him in our Juventus Legends series because however brief his career was, he made a huge impact on Juve and Serie A. And however grateful I am that he lost his cool as an Azzurri fan, part of me that day watched a Juventus icon slam his head into the chest of a scummy Interista...