Marco Materazzi—the Italian defender who goaded Zinadine Zidane into famously headbutting him during last year’s World Cup—is on a book tour. How is he promoting it? By telling the world what he said that sent Z into a fury on the world’s biggest sporting stage.

According to Italian magazine TV Sorrisi e Canzoni, Materazzi told them (which he denies) what made Zidane go bonkers:

“I held his shirt for only a few seconds, [Zidane] turned to me and spoke to me in a manic fashion, looked at me arrogantly from top to bottom and said ‘if you want my shirt you can have it after the match’.
“I responded with an insult, that is true,” said Materazzi.

That insult was… “I prefer the whore that is your sister.” That’s it?
It sounds like a cheesy line from The Godfather (ma fangul, you!), not something worth getting red-carded for during the last ten minutes of a close World Cup final. That didn’t even make our “top phrases to cause Zinadine Zidane to go momentarily insane” list. Since you’re wondering, our top three—in no particular order—were:
• “Sophia Loren pisses on Brigitte Bardot.”
• “I picked something out of my toe the other day that smells like what your people call cheese.”
• “I prefer the whore that is your brother.”

Materazzi’s World Cup insult of Zidane revealed [USA Today]
Materazzi comes clean over Zidane ‘whore’ slur [ABC News]
Image [CBC.ca]