how does materazzi feel about the head butt and italy not qualifying

Marco Materazzi has said he does not like being remembered mainly for the Zidane headbutt, because he feels it overshadows the rest of his career, and he has also said the episode “should never have happened.”

On Italy not qualifying, the search results show recent coverage of Italy’s latest World Cup qualifying failure, but they do not include a direct quote from Materazzi specifically reacting to that miss. So the safest read is that his clear public stance is about the headbutt itself, while his views on the newest Italy qualification failure aren’t directly captured in the sources here.

What he has said

• He regrets the incident and does not want it to define him.

• He has said he answered Zidane with a remark about Zidane’s sister, and that the reaction was still too extreme.

• He also said he never saw Zidane again after the final.

On Italy missing out

Italy’s latest qualifying collapse has been widely described as another painful setback for the national team, with recent coverage saying they will watch a third straight World Cup from home. But there is no direct Materazzi quote in the gathered sources tying him personally to that outcome.

Forum-style read

“He seems more annoyed that the headbutt became his permanent label than anything else.”

“Italy not qualifying is bigger than one moment, but for a former Azzurri icon, it probably still stings.”

If you want the cleanest one-line answer : Materazzi has said he regrets the headbutt as a defining moment and does not like being remembered for it, but I couldn’t find a direct quote from him about Italy’s latest failure to qualify.