Materazzi Was Italy's Hero in the World Cup Final

Materazzi was - no question about it - the best player of the World Cup final. Or, if the word "best" doesn't sound that nice to you, maybe we should try "valuable". Without Materazzi, the final would have had a pretty disappointing chain of events. For starters, France wouldn't have taken an early lead, following his allegedly fault on Malouda.

Second, Italy wouldn't have scored the equalizer and created 2 more scoring chances. And third, the most discussed topic within the sports media, Zidane would have probably ended his career in style, managing - maybe - to lead his team towards their 2nd World Cup title. Still, Nesta did not recover and, for the sake of football, I think it was for the best. And I hardly think that he doesn't agree with that.

The controversial fault in the 110th minute - when Zidane left the field after hitting the Inter Milan defender - left us all wanting for more. For example, even if we agreed that Zidane's gesture was unbelievable, we cannot stop ourselves from thinking about what were the words that came out of the Italian's mouth. I mean, Zidane had to have a good reason for that reaction.

And what could have Materazzi said to Zidane in only 2 seconds? These are pieces of information that only the two players know and that we would probably never find out. Still, it seems obvious that the Inter defender provoked the Frenchman.

"Sometimes when you have a player who is very clever and says something to you, then maybe you are angry and want to 'kill' that player. I don't know what he said. You'll have to ask him but he's gone. I know why he's gone because maybe he's done something wrong. Zinedine was very disappointed for everybody - for the team and himself. I'm very sad for him. It was his last World Cup and everybody wanted to win for him", said Chelsea's defender and Zidane's teammate, William Gallas.