Tutti Pazzi Materazzi

NOTHING falls down more easily than an Italian soccer player — with the possible exception of an Italian soccer player’s pants.

What is it with the World Cup champions’ eagerness to drop trou? Last summer five greased-up members of the Azzurri set hearts aflutter (and left little to the imagination) by appearing in Dolce & Gabbana underwear ads on signboards across Germany. Now, eight months later, their most notorious team-mate is spontaneously stripping into his black D&Gs before a stunned audience in a stylish Milan studio. It’s hard not to stare. Then again, he wants you to. “See, it’s the World Cup trophy!” says Marco Materazzi, pointing to the eight-inch-long tattoo on his left thigh, one of the two dozen (and counting) that decorate much of his chiseled 6’4” frame. “I got it three days after the final.”

“I’ve got one too!” adds his wife of 13 years, Daniela, rolling up her right sleeve to reveal a mini-Cup, to say nothing of her own array of body art.