Zinedine Zidane: I’d stand by player if they headbutt

Real Madrid Castilla’s new boss Zinedine Zidane has said he would be disappointed if he sees any of his players headbutt an opponent but would stand by them.

The man who made perhaps the most famous headbutt in football when he was sent off in the World Cup final against Italy in 2006 for driving his forehead into the chest of Marco Materazzi told L’Equipe there is normally an underlying reason for such behaviour.

After his own incident with Materezzi, in what was his last game of professional football, Zidane revealed he had been verbally abused by the Italian defender. And he believes he should have received more sympathy than he got at the time.

The manager of Madrid’s second string said: “If I was the coach and one of my players did that? Honestly, I would be disappointed but I would not come down hard on him. I would try to understand what happened and I would support my player.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Zidane also spoke about the Champions League final in May, and revealed the Los Blancos players had practiced penalties in the week before just in case it came down to spotkicks.

He added that some of the players sought him out for advice and asked him about his famous penalty in the 2006 World Cup final, when he outrageously chipped the ball down the middle past Gianluigi Buffon in the opening minutes of the game.