Zlatan Ibrahimovic hospitalised Materazzi in act of revenge during 2010 Milan derby | OneFootball

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marco Materazzi don’t exactly see eye to eye.

While the famously volatile pair might have shared the Inter Milan dressing room together once upon a time, it’s fair to say that their relationship grew sour by the time that Ibrahimovic donned the black and red stripes of AC Milan.

Now, Materazzi is no stranger to painful incidents on a football pitch because he is, after all, perhaps most famous for having been head-butted by Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final.

Ibrahimovic hospitalises Materazzi

However, remarkably, the Italian defender might possibly argue that it was actually the fiery culmination of his beef with Ibrahimovic that actually hurt a lot more than his clash with 'Zizou'.

That's because Materazzi was sent to hospital courtesy of a kung-fu kick and flying elbow from Ibrahimovic during the first Milan derby of the 2010/11 season in Serie A. Yeah, seriously.

As confirmed by Goal at the time, Materazzi - nicknamed 'Matrix' - was hospitalised for what can only be described as a taekwondo move for which Ibrahimovic was staggeringly only awarded a yellow card.

And although Ibrahimovic denied that it was a deliberate foul at the time, he later revealed that the brutal tackle was indeed an act of revenge that had been years upon years in the making.

Why did Zlatan get revenge on Materazzi?

The Daily Mail quotes Ibrahimovic as explaining to GQ Magazine in 2019 what was really going on: "Materazzi entered a challenge like an assassin and hurt me. He was a tough football player, that's OK.

"But there's two ways to be tough, one of them is aiming to hurt you. Even [Paolo] Maldini was tough, but with a different objective.

"It was Juventus-Inter in 2006 and after the foul I had to leave the pitch for a moment and [coach Fabio] Capello said: 'I'll substitute you'. I said: 'no, I'll go on.'

"I wanted to return to the pitch to get my revenge on Matrix. If someone does that to me, I won't forget about it. But after two minutes, I'm in too much pain to go on. I can't play. Then I go to Inter, Barcelona, Milan…

"In the first game, the 2010-11 derby, they were all against me. OK, this motivates me. But, if you don't have any control, it's not good. You'll lose your head and do something stupid. I got a penalty, and who fouled me? Materazzi. 1-0 Milan.

"In the second half, Matrix is coming at me and I hit him with a taekwondo move, I sent him to the hospital. [Dejan] Stankovic asked me: 'Why did you do that?' And I replied to him: 'I have been waiting for this moment for four years. That's why.'

"Then I left. What goes around comes around."

Wowsers. Imagine waiting that long to get revenge for something and then executing it in such dramatic fashion that you send the guy to hospital - madness.

What did Materazzi say about Zlatan?

And as soon as Ibrahimovic revealed that he was indeed deliberately out to get Materazzi, the man himself responded on Instagram by posting a picture of him celebrating winning the Champions League.

The former Inter Milan hero wrote in the caption: “I came… I saw… I conquered. Always and in any case, THANK YOU, Ibrahimovic. Without you, we would never have WON.”

As we know, Ibrahimovic has famously never won the Champions League as he left both Inter and Barcelona the season before both sides went onto lift 'Big Ears'.

Nevertheless, we're inclined to think that Ibrahimovic won't quite have been as hurt by that post to the same extent that Materazzi clearly was by that brutal act of revenge in 2010, that's for sure.