I love a good goal celebration. Did anyone see Tim Cahill’s for Everton yesterday? He clasped his wrists together in a kind of ‘x’ shape and proceeded to burst into tears. I hadn’t a clue what he was doing but it turns it was a display of solidarity for his brother who’s in prison for grievous bodily harm and the thing with his hands was to signify handcuffs.
Some old skool folk hate celebrations and think they’re ridiculous but I think they’re superb from the pure emotion of the likes of Tardelli’s in the 1982 World Cup to the somersaults as perfected by Aghahowa and others. That said anybody who does the ‘rock the cradle’ thing that Bebeto first did in US '94 deserves to be shot. Tevez and his dummy and Totti sticking the football up his jersey and then popping it out are more acceptable celebrations to recognise a new born child.
Was it Charlie George in the 1971 FA cup final? Classic
Gazza’s Dentist chair in Euro 96 was class too.
Cantona v Sunderland, the chip over the keeper and turned as the ball went into the net, class. As too was his goal v Liverpool (I think), the match he came back from the Kung-Fu kick v Palace. He jumped up on the advertising hoarding and held the stick that kept the nets up, class.
Klinsmann for Spurs v Sheff Wed on his first game for them in '94, the flop. Two fingers to the media.
Don’t know his name, World cup '94, Nigerian captain, scored v Greece I think, when he went into the net and was chanting or summit. Crazy mofo…
Ray Houghtan’s “somersault” was cringe in '94 but I didn’t see it in realtime as I was jumpin and leapin around the place. Good man Razor
Lee Sharpe shuffle with Incey, muppets. Plus Sharpe’s Elvis with the cornerflag, twat.
whats the story with Anelkas crossed hands/butterfly thingy? Was Yakubu doing something similar yesterday too?
Thought Fowlers line snorting in fornt of the Evertons fans was funny too. Grosso’s celebration in the World Cup semi against germany was Tardelli like. Bellamy’s golf swing. Lucarelli when he took off his jersey and started shagging it, Asprilla when he flew his jersey on the corner flag. graham Murty and the following season Shane Long taking out the club mascot, Maradonas drug fuelled screaming at the camera against Greece in 94.
And some of the worst, Crouch’s robotics, the Chelseas posing one when Petrescu I think scored, as mentioned, Lee Sharpe, Strachen when he scored against Germany in 86, as Bandage says, any rocking the baby one these days, and I hate group dancing pre arranged celebrations. Theres on with a lower league English club all rowing a boat as an example.
Cahill’s goal celebration had to do with his brother who is in jail for actual bodily harm. It was a handcuff gesture. Everton came out today and defended it.
Seem to recall a conversation like this on Saturday night at Clarkey’s leaving drinks. I said my favourite celebration was Jimmy Keaveney’s against Armnagh in 1977. Having scored a superb lobbed goal he proceed to make a gesture which more or less told the other Dublin players who were celebrating to stop and cop themselves on…
It seems you didn’t read my post in full Farmer. One thing that annoys me about goal celebrations, and it’s fairly irrational, is when one player beats 3 or 4 men and gives a striker or someone a tap in from about 3 yards out and the striker runs off on his own waiting for everyone to follow him. Any striker with a little bit of decency should run straight over to the creator and thank him for the outstanding assist. In that sense I was glad to see Scott McDonald do that after McGeady’s outrageous skill and assist up in Aberdeen the other week.
Some of the best celebrations are when the scorer is so emotional or surprised that he doesn’t know what to do and just runs and runs and runs. I also like to see the whole team celebrate a goal together as it show solidarity and togetherness. Massimo Donati’s winner against Shakhtar with the last kick of the game was a cracking example of this. I also loved the fact their players were so shattered they were all lying on the ground inside their box with their heads in their hands as our players celebrated in the corner. After all their cheating and time-wasting they got exactly what they deserved. Then as Donati ran back to the half-way line he ran in between and around them all with his arms outstretched like he was an aeroplane weaving around traffic.
He always seems to have his ugly mug stuck in goal celebrations as he sprints up from defence to celebrate an irrelevant goal with a lean on top of the scorer and a shout into the crowd.
Another thing that annoys me is when football supporters, who spend a good portion of the game abusing the players, get offended like babies when a player has a cut back at them. Artur Boruc was at fault for two of the three goals conceded at Hibs earlier on this season and during the game on Saturday their supporters were taunting him and their ‘Artur Boruc is a wan*^!’ chants were clearly audible on numerous occasions. Then at the end, after he’s made a crucial save and Celtic get the win, Boruc waved at the home supporters and gave them a few clenched fists with a big grin on his face and the fools were frothing at the mouth and screaming blue murder.
Craig Bellamy kneeling in prayer in front of the hun hordes at Ibrox was a cracker.
Fully agree on the rocking the cradle thing - pathetic idea at this stage. Niall Quinn’s windmill for Ireland at Wembley was suitably embarrassing from the big man.
Anyone see/hear the match of the day “laugh of the day” from Gavin Peacock last night whilst bemoaning Ryan Babel’s lack of a left foot he finished with…
“Well here’s one thing he needs both feet for”
…followed by footage of Ryan Babels somersault celebration.
Apparently Lineker came out with a ‘It’s good to see Ashley scoring again’ quip after his goal for Chelsea the other day. I actually can’t bear to watch Lineker, Hansen, Shearer and Lawrenson massaging each other’s egos though. As regards other celebrations, I like Benjani’s point to the crowd one but I hate clowns who think they’re too cool for school to even contemplate celebrating like that Thierry Henry prick.
I liked Finidi George’s impersonation of a dog which culminated in raising his leg to urinate against the corner flag. Not that he actually urinated, that’s only allowed in junior soccer.
I think the best ones are those with a bit of originality, most players are too stupid and just copy famous celebrations - taking jersey off, pretending to be DJing, the Klinsmann dive and the latest one seems to be making some sign that could be “A” but I’m not certain what it is.
At the time when everyone was copying Ravenelli’s jersey over the head, Dean Saunders celebrated by pulling his jersey over his head, but ran around as if he couldn’t see where he was going. Funny enough piss-take.
I agree with Bandage about players who run off celebrating a 2 yard tap in whilst ignoring the assist, doesn’t say a lot about team spirit.
The ‘A’ is in recognition of a charity set up by Andrew Johnson of Everton and Fitz Hall (he of the ‘One Size’ nickname) of QPR. This is from Johnson’s wikipedia site"
‘In December 2007, Johnson, along with a host of other players, including Marcus Bent, Gabriel Agbonlahor & Titus Bramble, started celebrting goals by making an A with his hands. It was later revealed that this was infact the players way of signalling the start of a new football based community project scheme - The A-Stars! With its motto being “if you dream it, you can achieve it” the idea is to enable young people to use the talents they have for good, in sporting work places. The Co-founder of the Charity is Queens Park Rangers defender Fitz Hall, who played with Johnson at Palace.’
Cassano picked up a booking for kicking the shit out of a corner flag in celebrating a goal at the weekend. The nutjob that he is got a second booking for a foul later on, got sent off, threw his jersey at the ref and started crying.
I don’t know. The whole thing about Klinsmann was that he had the rep of being a diver and when Spurs bought him after Germany’s poor showing in USA '94, they harped on the fact that he was a cheat and was washed up. He proved them wrong by winning one of the player of the year awards that year (can’t rem if it was the players player or the football writers)
Saw a clip of him from earlier in the season where he was crying on the ground on his knees and beating the grass with his fist. He literally threw a tantrum. Went on to score the winner. What a nutter. Smashing player though.