What with continuous failings on the international tournament stage, England know a thing or two about vilifying those who wrong us at crucial times. Think Ronaldo for Portugal in 2006 for example.
No matter how hard we’ve diverted attention away from the fact that we’re just a bit garbage, nothing comes close to furry that France must have for Marco Materazzi.
The former Inter treble winner was at the heart of the Azzuri defence when he famously angered the great Zidane into unleashing an almighty flying head-butt during the 2006 World Cup final, an incident which swiftly ended the international career of possibly the greatest French player to ever play the game.
Turns out that the French public aren’t quite ready to forgive the Italians acid tongue judging from this latest poll from ‘France Football’.
Asked to name their most hated players, the French public named Materazzi as number one. And the former Everton centre half wasn’t the only one to feel their wrath.
Samir Nasri got in at number two for some staggering levels of immaturity whilst on international duty, along with Juventus left back and coup extraordinaire Patrice Evra (4).
Poor old Mathieu Valbuena gets in also following all that messy sex tape business and Harald Schumacher quite understandably for nearly killing one of their players during a match.
Here’s the top 10:
Marco Materazzi
Samir Nasri
Mathieu Valbuena
Franck Ribery
Patrice Evra
Harald Schumacher
Thiago Motta
Fabrice Fiorèse
Brandao
Emir Spahic
(Via France Football)