Former Italy defender Marco Materazzi apologises to the late Gigi Riva for not shaking hands with Sepp Blatter in 2007, months after the Azzurri had won the World Cup in Berlin.
Blatter was FIFA President in 2006 but refused to give the World Cup to the Azzurri after their victory in a Final against France.
Riva was Italy’s team manager then, and when Blatter met the Azzurri again a few months later, Materazzi refused to shake hands with him.
The former Inter and Italy centre-back revealed it on Instagram in a post he shared to pay tribute to the late ‘Rombo di Tuono.’
“Gigi, I know you have forgiven me, but maybe this is the right moment to apologise for the only time I didn’t listen to you,” wrote Materazzi.
“It was January 2007 in Rome and Blatter came to us to apologise. He hadn’t given us the World Cup in Berlin. You asked me to be nice to him, but I said: ‘No, Gigi, I will never shake hands with him, never ever.’
“You did anything you could to minimise, but you know how I am done. You knew me so well that maybe you defended me more than anyone else when many attacked me. Surely, you were the one who convinced me to postpone my international retirement,” continued Materazzi.
“I was in Cagliari with Inter and you visited me to convince me that quitting the national team was wrong. This is who you were, Gigi. A man of a few words, but who always had the right ones. This is why today we have none to say how much pain we feel. We will miss you.”
Riva, Italy’s all-time top goal scorer died in Cagliari on Monday. His funerals will be held in the capital of Sardinia today, Wednesday, January 24.
Riva is also Cagliari’s all-time top goal scorer and contributed to their first and only Serie A title in 1969-70.
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Materazzi was right not to shake his hand, not handing the trophy to Italy showed Blatter’s biased against us, it should never be forgotten. Riva was wrong on this one.
Blatter seemed to always have a soft spot for Germant & Holland in world cups…