The final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the 18th edition of FIFA's competition for national football teams, was played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany, on 9 July 2006, and was contested between Italy and France. The event comprised hosts Germany and 31 other teams who emerged from the qualification phase, organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 32 teams competed in a group stage, from which 16 teams qualified for the knockout stage.
En route to the final, Italy had to deal with the aftermath of the Calciopoli and public boycotts. Despite this, Italy finished first in Group E, with two wins and a draw, after which they defeated Australia in the round of 16, Ukraine in the quarter-final, and Germany 2–0 in the semi-final. Suffering from underperformance, France finished runner-up of Group G with one win and two draws, before defeating Spain in the round of 16, Brazil in the quarter-final, and Portugal 1–0 in the semi-final. The final was witnessed by 69,000 spectators in the stadium, with the referee for the match being Horacio Elizondo from Argentina.
Italy won the World Cup after beating France 5–3 in a penalty shoot-out following a 1–1 draw at the conclusion of extra time. The match was focused mostly on France's Zinedine Zidane and Italy's Marco Materazzi: this was the last match of Zidane's career, they each scored their team's only goal of the game, and they were also involved in an incident in extra time that led to Zidane being sent off for headbutting Materazzi in the chest. The Zidane–Materazzi incident was the subject of much analysis following the match. Italy's Andrea Pirlo was named the man of the match, and Zidane was awarded the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament.
The final served as a key match in the France–Italy football rivalry, coming after Italy were defeated by France in the UEFA Euro 2000 final. Italy's victory was their first world title in 24 years, and their fourth overall, putting them one ahead of Germany and only one behind Brazil. For the first time since November 1993, Italy topped the FIFA World Rankings in February 2007 as a result of the win. With eight football players from Juventus in the final, it equalled the record of Sparta Prague in 1934. Both sides would fail to get past the group stage in 2010, becoming the first set of finalists to do so, while Italy became the third World Cup champions to be eliminated from the group phase after Brazil in 1966 and France in 2002. As of 2026, this is the last knockout stage match played by Italy in the tournament, having gone out in the groups in 2014 before failing to qualify since.
Background
Venue
The Olympiastadion in Berlin was used as the venue for the final, as well as five other matches over the tournament. It was also used for three matches at the 1974 World Cup. The Olympiastadion was built for the 1936 Summer Olympics in the western part of the city. Since 1985, the stadium has hosted the finals of both the DFB-Pokal and its female equivalent. The Olympiastadion hosts the Internationales Stadionfest, which was an IAAF Golden League event from 1998 to 2009. The stadium hosted the 2009 World Championships in Athletics. Aside from its use as an Olympic stadium, the Olympiastadion has a strong footballing tradition, having been the home of Hertha BSC since 1963.
Italy–France rivalry
Italy's first official match as a national team was against France on 15 May 1910, and the two countries developed a football rivalry. They have faced each other in several world-stage tournaments, including previous World Cups in 1938 (3–1 Italy), 1978 (2–1 Italy), 1986 (2–0 France), and 1998 (4–3 in penalty shoot-out to France). Most recently, they had contested the UEFA Euro 2000 final, which ended in a 2–1 victory for France after a golden goal in extra time by David Trezeguet.
The match was the sixth FIFA World Cup final for Italy and the second for France. Italy had won three of their previous finals (1934, 1938, 1982), losing two (1970, 1994), while France had won their only previous final (1998). It was the first final since 1978 in which neither Germany nor Brazil competed and only the second since 1938; it was also the first all-European final since Italy won the World Cup in 1982 and the second final to be decided by a penalty shoot-out (1994 was the first, with Italy losing to Brazil on that occasion). It was also the first final since 1938 in which neither Germany, Brazil nor Argentina competed.
Zidane's announced retirement and Serie A scandal
In April 2006, France's Zinedine Zidane, who at the time played for Spanish league side Real Madrid and also previously served for the Italian league side Juventus, announced his retirement from football, saying his playing career would end after the World Cup. Considered "one of the greatest footballers ever" and at the time still the "world's most expensive player", his honours list included a Ballon d'Or, three FIFA World Player of the Year awards, and FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship, UEFA Champions League, La Liga, and Serie A winners' medals. In May 2006, Italy's Serie A league was hit by Calciopoli, a controversial scandal mainly surrounding Juventus (judged in rushed proceedings lasting two months and 12 days to make way for the World Cup and the 2006–2007 football season), a team to which five of the national squad players belonged, before in later years it emerged that virtually all Serie A clubs were involved but time-barred, causing a controversy between Juventus, Inter Milan, and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) that lasted for the next two decades over unequal treatment.
In July 2006, amnesty calls by various individuals, including politicians across the political spectrum in a polarised climate, as had been done in the early 1980s prior to Italy winning its third World Cup, were ultimately rejected in a public and media climate of "guilty until proven innocent", and many were openly cheering against Italy. Moreover, part of the media and several individuals, including the then minister Giovanna Melandri, had called for Italy manager and Juventus players to be excluded from the World Cup. Lippi and all Juventus players were subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. That so many players in the final were from Juventus was cited by club supporters and commentators, including some critics of the club and other figures, such as the then FIGC president Franco Carraro, the then Juventus manager Fabio Capello, and the then Juventus player Zlatan Ibrahimović, to argue that Juventus was the strongest team and had legitimately won on the pitch back-to-back the 2004–2005 Serie A and the 2005–2006 Serie A revoked league titles. While some individuals like the then FIGC extraordinary commissioner Guido Rossi publicly supported Lippi, many noted the hypocrisy of those who celebrated the win of Italy when they had cheered against the national squad or had called for Juventus figures to be excluded (including Lippi, who ultimately did not renew his managerial contract as a result of this), explicitily citing the case of Melandri.
Road to the final
Squads analysis
Italy and France met again six years after the Euro 2000 final and eight years after their last meeting in a World Cup tournament, the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Cup, both of which had been won by France. Once the final tournament began, Italy managed to isolate themselves from the aforementioned scandal and reached the knockout stage without major difficulties, following a group stage campaign in Group E that saw them secure two wins and a draw, respectively against Ghana (2–0), the United States (1–1), and the Czech Republic (2–0). Nonetheless, these initial matches were not without issues for Lippi's men: Daniele De Rossi received a four-match ban for elbowing American player Brian McBride, while Alessandro Nesta ended his World Cup tournament early due to a serious injury sustained during the match against the Czechs.
In the round of 16, the Azzurri struggled more than expected to defeat Australia (1–0), prevailing only thanks to a penalty converted by Francesco Totti in stoppage time, while the comfortable quarter-final victory over Andriy Shevchenko's Ukraine (3–0) went according to predictions. In the semi-final, the hosts and three-time world champions Germany succumbed to the Azzurri (0–2) following a late one-two punch by Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero at the very end of extra time.
A defining characteristic of the Italian squad was the continuous rotation of starting players. With the exception of the two backup goalkeepers, Angelo Peruzzi and Marco Amelia, every other selected player was fielded at least once. Throughout the tournament, the attacking line-up alternated between Del Piero, Alberto Gilardino, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Filippo Inzaghi, Luca Toni, and Totti, supported by a solid midfield and above all a nearly impenetrable defence (conceding only one goal, which was an own goal), with goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon remaining unbeaten for 453 minutes. After the semi-final with Germany, Gianni Mura, one of Italy's leading sports journalists, celebrated the Azzurri by associating each player with a colour and a wine. He compared Materazzi to Nero d'Avola with these words: "Here too, the assonance has played a part. It is a wine of resolute character that has boosted the reputation of bottled Sicilian wine. If you do not watch your step, it will floor you. Just like Materazzi, precisely."
The Bleus secured second place in Group G with some difficulty, recording two draws and a victory against Switzerland (0–0), South Korea (1–1), and Togo (2–0). Even during these first three matches, France displayed physical and technical limitations, and Domenech was not immune to criticism: among other things, the manager made no secret of aligning the team partly based on astrological signs, and regularly left David Trezeguet—generally considered one of the finest forwards of his generation—on the bench for both tactical reasons, favouring a system with Thierry Henry as a lone striker, and specifically for reasons related to astrology.
With several players still remaining from the 1998 World Cup victory, the squad was accused of being old and worn out—or "old and toothless", as Spain manager Luis Aragonés put it. In the knockout stage, carried by a rejuvenated Zidane (who had been quiet until then), the French overcame Spain (3–1) in the round of 16, defending champions Brazil (1–0) in the quarter-finals, and Luís Figo's Portugal in the semi-final (1–0), which featured a young Cristiano Ronaldo in his first World Cup experience.
Italy
Italy's campaign in the tournament was accompanied by open pessimism, in large part due to the controversy caused by the Serie A scandal. Italy arrived at the 2006 World Cup in a decidedly complicated situation. During that year, the world of Italian football had been heavily shaken by the Calciopoli scandal, during which a series of relationships between club directors and representatives of the refereeing class had emerged, limited to the 2004–2005 Serie A season. It later emerged that these relations, which were not limited to the Italian league and were formally banned across Europe only in the aftermath of the scandal following the example of Italy, had been encouraged by the FIGC itself and the then FIGC president Franco Carraro in order to promote good relations among clubs and avoid further controversies, such as complaining in public about referees. The club most affected by sports justice was Juventus, the only club to be relegated to Serie B despite similar violations to the other four Serie A clubs (Fiorentina, Lazio, Milan, and Reggina) initially involved in the scandal.
Perhaps the most famous scandal of match-fixing in association football, such as that the prosecution spoke of many fixed matches and multiple leagues that had been altered through corrupted referees and rigged drawing lots, all of which were widely publicised by the press and taken for granted by the public, the sentences ultimately debunked these allegations, with no match fixing, no involved players (unlike previous and subsequent match-fixing scandals), no corrupted referees, no exchange or trace of money involved, and no rigged drawing lots. Ultimately, Calciopoli was about alleged violations and early consumation crimes (sporting fraud) that instead revolved around the referee grids, which were discussed between the referee designators and most clubs (which was allowed by the FIGC or at least it was not explicitily against the rules at the time), did not affect the game as they were significantly preliminary (as also found by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Turin in 2004) and there would still be a drawing lot procedure (found to be regular), and were easily predictable due to the preclusion rules. As often happened in the history of the Azzurri, also in this case the Bianconeri represented the backbone of the Italian national team, managed on this occasion by Marcello Lippi, a historic ex-Juventus manager; Lippi himself, with a son (Davide Lippi) who was an agent linked to the GEA World, a sports agent company that was implicated in the scandal but whose members were ultimately acquitted from criminal conspiracy charges in the criminal trials in Rome, was the target of a media campaign aimed at pushing him to resign for reasons of expediency, with many even calling for Italy's exclusion from the World Cup.