It was enough to hear the comments of the late Thierry Gilardi at the time of the exclusion of Zinedine Zidane after having headbutted Marco Materrazzi during the 2006 World Cup final against Italy for Jérôme Rothen explodes and unleashes himself on the former playmaker, alongside whom he even took his first steps in the French team.
“What a shame!” Headbutt is a shame! How do you score a header in a World Cup final? How could we forgive him for that? he was indignant at the microphone of his show “Rothen s’ignle”. I’m not the only one who thinks this. All French people think like me. I say things, it’s nonsense, what he did. It’s horrible. He made us lose the World Cup, I can’t believe it. »
Zinedine Zidane, insults that do not pass
The comments are violent but only reflect the deep resentment felt by Jérôme Rothen with regard to the 1998 Ballon d’Or. A consequence in particular of the clash which opposed them during the double confrontation in the Champions League between Monaco and Real Madrid in the spring of 2004. Zidane’s tackle clips my ankle and I find myself on the ground. I’m not really in pain, but since there are only a few minutes left to play, I collapse like a bad movie actor. (…). Zinedine stops next to me, leans over and says: “Get up, son of a bitch.” he said in his autobiography in 2008.
“In 2004, we eliminated Real Madrid with AS Monaco in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. There is one stain on this success: the insults of Zinédine Zidane. This is the black point of my career, he confided again in 2020. I understand his frustration when you play at Real and lose to little Monaco. But these words (son of a bitch), coming from the mouth of someone you know, I don’t understand them.”
Jérôme Rothen’s teammate in the Principality, Patrice Evra recently spoke about this episode, agreeing with the former Parisian. “During Monaco-Real Madrid, Rothen fouls Zizou. Jérôme holds out his hand to him, Zidane tells him “release your hand”. And at the Blues rally, Rothen was a ghost for Zidane,” he explained, nevertheless adding: “Zidane’s reaction can be understood given the tension. »
