By: Rajeeb Mukherjee

There was a moment of silence as Marco Materazzi walked in, and settled down for the pre-match press conference. Seconds went by as Chennaiyin FC’s player-cum-manager waited, arms crossed and held tight across his chest. Perhaps in that brief pause those present in the room must have been wondering how to pop the Zidane question, and when it does, how Materazzi would react.

Even after eight years, the Italian World Cup winner can’t avoid Zidane, or rather, the headbutt, which continues to follow him wherever he goes. Not that Materazzi wishes to avoid it though. After all, in April this year, he did stoke that old flame from the summer of 2006, when he all but ended France’s dream of winning a second World Cup, first with an equalising goal and then doing enough to provoke Zidane’s headbutt, that brought a shameful end to the French maestro’s career.

The man known as the ‘Matrix’ (not that he looks like Neo, but more because he can play with the mind, or rather, get into someone else’s mind… just ask Zizou) nominated Zidane for the Ice Bucket Challenge. Whether Zidane accepted the challenge or not is anybody’s guess, but when asked, all Materazzi would say is, “I don’t know, I didn’t go to the internet.”

That’s Materazzi for you. He likes to play with the mind, confuse and confound existing norms of the game and in the end, leave an imprint that’s hard to shake off. That’s what he is doing these days with the Chennai outfit, which started its pre-season late owing to ownership hassles, but is now blooming into a well-knit unit. Some years back the Inter legend had told FourFourTwo in an interview that he could never see himself as a manager, and yet, under the 41-year-old, Chennai are now sitting pretty with two wins in two.

During practice, he is not one to sit back and relax. He would rather be in the mix, playing, whistling instructions, advising, clapping and cheering, and at times, showing the rest how it is to be done with a neat tackle or two.

In all of this he comes across as a fighter, as does his Chennai team. Materazzi, though looking fit for at least 45 minutes, if not more, is reluctant to play himself against the Delhi Dynamos at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Saturday evening. Even if there is a certain Alessandro Del Piero on the opposite side on whom, as usual, rests Delhi’s fortune.

“No, I don’t think so,” Materazzi said, adding that though Del Piero knows him well, it’s not the other way round. That despite their club clashes, and having been in the national team for several years. They had even shared the stage with the Rolling Stones in Milan after Italy’s World Cup triumph in 2006 and later, when Juventus decided not to renew Del Piero’s contract at the end of the 2012 season after 20 years , this was what Materazzi had to say: “Gratitude in football has been dead for years.”

But then you can’t possibly hope to put Materazzi in a straitjacket. For one who considers Eric Cantona as his idol, Materazzi goes beyond the stereotypes.

Amid questions about team formation and player availability, he would not forget to mention that he is here to win points, and if that’s done playing ugly (read defensive), then so be it. One can’t miss the distinct Mourinho resonance in those words.

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