Few modern World Cup Finals have captured the ups and downs of sport better than the 2006 World Cup Final. 1998 champions France, led by the imminently retiring Zinedine Zidane, took on Italy, the 1994 runners up. Zidane opened the scoring with a penalty in the seventh minute, followed closely by Marco Materrazi’s thundering header for Italy to even the score at 1-1 in the 19th minute. Match proceedings remained static until the 110th minute, when the French captain Zidane committed one of the most shocking acts of violence ever witnessed on the pitch at a major international tournament. Evidently provoked by Italy’s goalscorer Materrazi, the Juventus and Real Madrid star unleashed a ferocious headbutt directly into the center of Materrazi’s chest. A photograph of Zidane walking past the Jules Rimet Trophy on his way to the France locker room remains one of the defining images of the 2006 World Cup.

With the absence of Zidane weighing on the French team, David Trezeguet sent his spot kick in the penalty shooting thudding into the crossbar, leaving France to watch helplessly as Fabio Grosso blasted the match-winning penalty past French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez. This victory gave Italy their fourth World Cup title and first since 1982.

This offered medal is gold in color, and measures two inches in diameter. One side features a high relief etching of the legendary Jules Rimet Trophy. The reverse side of this circular medal boasts a high relief etching of the 2006 World Cup logo and the text “FIFA World Cup Germany 2006”. The medal was produced by the Italian company G.D.E. Bertoni. The medal comes with the original presentation box, a black 4 x 4-inch square with a transparent area in the middle to house the medal. This is a historically significant medal from one of the most memorable World Cup Finals in the history of the sport.

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