The French national team is preparing to face Italy tomorrow evening at the Stade de France, in the third round of the UEFA Nations League.
France tops Group 1 with 6 points, while Italy sits in third place with 3 points.
Zinedine Zidane, the coach of France, confirmed that he feels no regret regarding the famous headbutt incident twenty years after losing the World Cup final.
Zinedine Zidane was asked about his headbutt on Marco Materazzi in the 2026 World Cup final and said in statements published by the French newspaper "L'Equipe": "No, I am not regretful."
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He added: "This is part of my career, I am not proud of what happened and I have said this before and I repeat it now, one cannot achieve great accomplishments only but there were wonderful moments as well."
He continued: "These images always reminded me of the matter, as the clip is shown frequently everywhere, but fortunately, my career did not consist of that alone, there are other positive images too."
He completed: "Juventus is part of the positive stops in my career, at this club I became an important player and afterwards I never spoke with Materazzi, I am not proud of what I did but I do not feel regret, this is part of my journey and in life this applies to everyone, what we do does not always consist of beautiful things only."
He resumed: "We are now in a new phase of my career and we will see what happens in the match against Italy, the red card incident in 2006 which put an end to my career with the national team gave me additional motivation to return as a manager, which is a dream that turned into reality, I always believed in myself and in the positive aspects and I prepared myself well and I am now ready to coach and give my all for this team."
Zidane praised the Italian national team before facing them: "Italy is a footballing superpower, it seems strange that you do not see them in the World Cup for three consecutive times and although I am not aware of the details of the situation or the reasons for what happened, I realize that Italy is a strong team."
He completed: "Perhaps they are no longer at the same level they were in 2006, but anything is possible in a single match, facing Mancini's team is not easy, they lost against Belgium and achieved a notable win against Turkey and therefore we must be ready and at peak fitness to achieve victory."
Zidane admitted: "I had many wonderful coaches, and Lippi was a very distinguished coach tactically, Italians possess an important tactical culture and do not need to learn anything from others and I also possess a degree of this culture."
