FIFA World Cup 2006: When the 2002 Asian World Cup ended, football was at a new turning point. Brazil became champions for the fifth time and Ronaldo had completed his greatest comeback. But behind the scenes another change was taking shape. The center of football itself was changing. Europe’s major leagues had become more powerful than ever, player prices were reaching new highs and sports science was increasingly becoming a part of the game.
When Germany embraced the world
The 2006 World Cup was the face of this modern era. For the first time since 1974, the World Cup returned to German soil, but this time the country had changed. The Cold War was over, East and West Germany were united. The slogan of this tournament was ‘A time to embrace friends’, and through this Germany showed its new, open and modern image to the world.
Big screens were installed all over the country, lakhs of people started watching the matches sitting in open grounds. This idea of ’Fan Fest’ came up on such a large scale for the first time. Football had now gone out of the stadium and become a festival of the entire country.
Brazil’s ‘magic quartet’, and a new name
Many stories were being born on the field also. Brazil were again contenders, with Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and Adriano, a quartet dubbed the ‘Magic Quartet’ by the media. On paper this team seemed almost invincible. Ronaldo scored his 15th World Cup goal against Ghana and became the most successful goalscorer in World Cup history, breaking Gerd Müller’s record.
In the same tournament, 18 year old Lionel Messi made his debut against Serbia. Made an assist and scored his first World Cup goal, becoming the youngest player to score a goal for Argentina. The Portugal-Netherlands match became the most violent match in history, the ‘Battle of Nuremberg’, in which the referee had to show a record 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards.
Zidane: one last journey
But the most emotional story was of France and at the center of it was Zinedine Zidane. Hero of 1998, European champion of 2000, one of the most beautiful minds in football. Zidane had already announced. This will be his last tournament.
France looked lackluster in the beginning. Critics said his time had passed. But as the knockout rounds approached, Zidane started changing, as if he had saved all his remaining energy for this last journey.
France defeated Spain in the second round. They faced Brazil in the quarter-finals, a clash of two football civilizations. The game that Zidane played that night is still remembered, he dictated the pace of the entire match and Brazil looked helpless. France won 1–0, with Thierry Henry scoring the winning goal from Zidane’s free-kick pass. France reached the final after defeating Portugal in the semi-finals, and Zidane was now one step away from his last match.
Italy: A team rising from the ashes of scandal
On the other hand, Italy was also progressing, but their story was not just on the field. Shortly before the World Cup, Italian football was rocked by a major corruption scandal known as “Calciopoli”, with serious allegations against clubs and referees, with big club Juventus being relegated to a lower league.
But sometimes a crisis does not break a team, it unites it. Italy’s players made this World Cup a battle for their honour. Fabio Cannavaro was the leader of the defence, Andrea Pirlo ran the game, Buffon remained a wall at the goalpost.
In the semi-finals, facing hosts Germany, regular time passed without a goal, then in the last minutes of extra time, Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero scored two goals in the 119th and 121st minutes. Germany’s dream of winning at home was shattered there, Italy reached the final.
Final: Panenka shot, then that headbutt
9 July 2006, Olympic Stadium, Berlin, final, France vs Italy, Zidane’s last match. France were awarded a penalty early on, Zidane hit a low chip shot, the ball hit the crossbar and went into the goal, this is called “Panenka” style. Only Zidane could have shown the courage to hit such a shot in front of Buffon under the pressure of the final.
Italy responded quickly, with Marco Materazzi equalizing with a header. The match became tough. Then in extra time came the most famous moment in World Cup history. Some words were exchanged between Zidane and Materatsi, a few seconds later Zidane turned and hit Materatsi in the chest with his head.
Materaatsi collapsed on the field, the entire stadium was stunned. The referee took advice, then showed a red card. Zidane’s career ended, but in a way that no one had expected.
As it turned out, Materatsi had made extremely derogatory remarks about Zidane’s sister, and Zidane could not control himself. The image of him walking off the field with his head bowed as he walked past the World Cup trophy has become one of the most emotional photographs in sporting history.
fourth crown of italy
The match eventually went to a penalty shootout. Italy successfully took all of their penalties, with France’s David Trezegue’s shot hitting the crossbar. Italy became world champions again after 24 years, for the first time since 1982. Captain Fabio Cannavaro was dubbed the “Berlin Wall” for his impenetrable play, and he went on to become one of the rare defenders to win the Ballon d’Or.
Heritage: Story of humanity, not perfection
But the 2006 World Cup is not remembered only for Italy’s victory. It is remembered for Zidane’s departure, for the headbutt that stopped the whole world for a few moments. It is remembered for the paradox in which a player scored a spectacular goal in the final and also saw a red card. Perhaps that is why this World Cup seems so human, it is not a story of perfection, but of skill, emotion and human weakness.
Zidane left, Ronaldo’s era also started declining. But in the same World Cup, two young players had come to the attention of the world, one from Portugal, one from Argentina. For the next fifteen years, world football was going to revolve around these two names, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.