Italy beat France 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out to win the World Cup after a 1-1 draw in Berlin. Fabio Grosso scored the winning penalty after France's David Trezeguet missed.

Playing his last game before retiring, Zinedine Zidane's career ended in disgrace after he was sent off for crazily headbutting Marco Materazzi. Zidane had put France ahead early on with a coolly-taken chipped penalty, before Materazzi levelled with a header from an Andrea Pirlo corner.

The result caps an incredible period for Italian football, with the domestic game embroiled in a corruption scandal similar to 1982 when they last won the World Cup.

Despite his bizarre on pitch actions, Zinedine Zidane won the Golden Ball award for the World Cup's best player. French captain Zidane polled 2,012 points in the vote by journalists mostly carried out at half-time.