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Marco “Matrix” Materazzi took the blue pill, and all he had to do was keep his eyes open to see that sometimes reality can outdo imagination. Imagine winning the World Cup. Now imagine lifting the trophy after scoring in the final and converting one of the penalties in one of the most iconic shootouts in Italian football history. If that’s hard to picture, just listen to the man who actually lived it twenty years ago: "By the time we got to the penalties, someone like Rino (Gattuso) had already taken off his shoes," Materazzi recalls in an interview with Donatella Scarnati, now available on Vivo Azzurro TV. "Iaquinta was staying wide, Fabio (Cannavaro) said he’d take the sixth, but in my opinion Buffon would have gone before him. Not many of us were left. I’ve always taken penalties and I felt ready, even with this superstition that if you score in the match, you might miss. But when you’re there, you can’t back down." Behind the player is a story of family and resilience: a father who is a coach, a mother lost at 15, his wife Daniela, three children, a grandson, and his brother Matteo, who in September 2024 was diagnosed with ALS, “a bolt from the blue.” For Materazzi, loved ones matter more than a World Cup, a Champions League, or five Serie A titles: "I’m someone who built everything from scratch and has a wonderful family. That’s what truly matters, beyond everything I’ve won or lost."
GOALSCORING DEFENDER. In an era when full-backs weren’t yet expected to patrol the entire flank and center-backs stayed firmly in their own penalty area with little offensive ambition, Marco Materazzi did more than just defend the fort. A left-footed specialist from the spot, he twice reached double digits in Serie A goals. In the 2000/2001 season, wearing the Perugia shirt, he scored 12 goals, still the record for a defender in the Italian top flight. But Materazzi, like Nesta, Cannavaro, and Maldini, was first and foremost a defender: "In terms of clean play and tactical intelligence, Nesta was the best alongside Maldini. Playing next to them, I sometimes felt a bit in awe. I can’t say the same about Cannavaro, because I felt closer to him, it was like two kids playing in the park. Defenders today are different, but so is football. In our time, the first priority was marking and not conceding; everyone did their job. Today, defenders almost have to know how to ‘handle’ the ball with their feet before marking to avoid losing their man, not that I couldn’t do it. I still believe that defenders should defend, midfielders should control the midfield, and attackers should attack."
SHIRTS CLOSEST TO HIS HEART. From Marsala to Trapani, from Carpi to his time in England with Everton, he has worn many shirts throughout his career. But there are only three he has truly “loved”, the ones he feels closest to. “They’re the ones I’m most attached to: the blue jersey, the one I wore at Perugia, the club that gave me the chance to reach the national team, and the Inter shirt. I won the Treble there with teammates like Toldo, Córdoba, and Zanetti, who had also shared with me the disappointment of May 5, 2002. It shows that if you keep pushing to reclaim what you’ve lost, you can eventually succeed.” He wore the number 23 as a tribute to Michael Jordan: “My father used to say I should have played basketball. Thankfully, I didn’t listen to him.”
GATTUSO AND ZIDANE Zidane’s sending-off in the Berlin final actually started with a scolding… from Gattuso: “When Buffon made that save on Zidane’s header, Rino (Gattuso) wanted to kill me because I wasn’t marking him. In reality, I was marking Trezeguet, but in situations like that, with Rino it was better not to argue about what happened. A little later, in the same situation, I held him by the shirt a bit, I just wanted to make sure he didn’t jump. I apologised twice, and then the third time he said, ‘If you want my shirt later, I’ll give it to you,’ I said something back… but it was nothing more than the kind of stuff we used to say as kids when I played along the Bari waterfront.” Materazzi’s World Cup was a rollercoaster of emotions. It started when he replaced the injured Nesta in the third group match against the Czech Republic. Corner kick, powerful header, ball in the net, a goal very similar to the one he would score against France: “That goal was more important than the one in the final because it meant we didn’t have to face Brazil. It gave us a lighter path, which ultimately strengthened us along the way. By the time we played Germany, we felt invincible. I dedicated that goal to my mother. In the next match against Australia, I got sent off, and some said the magic was over. In the final, the chance came again, and with that leap, someone pushed me up, I thought of my mother. But I have to say, the only ray of light in the Berlin stadium was shining on my wife and children. So, let’s just say it’s something to be shared…”
IN RINO’S HANDS Since the 2006 World Cup, the national team has not managed to get past the group stage. Since then, there have been two early exits in the first round, in South Africa and Brazil, and two failed qualification campaigns in 2018 and 2022. At the end of this month, Italy must win the playoffs to secure a place in next summer’s tournament in America, and it will rely on another world champion to do so: “What I know is that Rino will fight tooth and nail to take us to the World Cup. He has taken on the most difficult role possible, direct qualification was practically out of reach. He is trying to transmit his energy and enthusiasm to the team. We won’t be facing fantastic teams, but tough ones. He has to keep the players calm. We’ll need to push hard, and I’m convinced he’s working with the utmost professionalism. That’s the most important thing to arrive ready for these two very difficult matches.”