Footballers and celebrating goals 3

This will be the final piece on footballers and their goal celebrations…

If you didn't read the first and second episodes, click this link for 1 and this for 2

Dancing after scoring ago is a common thing in football today, especially among Brazilians and some African players. It isn’t shocking to see Geyse (Barcelona Femeni new Brazilian striker) replicate Ronaldinho’s famous leg dance after scoring her first goal for her new club.

Is dancing a form of disrespect to the opposing fan? I believe dancing has as much effect as jumping, punching the air, shouting “siuuu” or just pointing to the sky. The opposing fan isn’t happy that you scored against their team so any form of celebration offends them and might result in boos.

Vinicius' Dance

Vini has been in fine form for Madrid, together with Benzema he won yet another Champions League for Madrid. Like most Brazilians, Vini dances after scoring a goal. Neymar Jnr also dance from time to time but against Mallorca, it was a different case for Vinicius.

At half time on his way to the tunnel, Vini was subjected to some racist attack and he shut them up in the second half with his dance. The match ended but the trolls didn’t end neither did the attention end.

Spanish agent “Pedro Bravo” said in a discussion “In Spain, you have to respect rivals and stop playing the monkey”. This statement sparked a lot of reactions. Coming from a figure like that publicly, it surely got so many people angry. He later apologized and said he “didn’t mean it that way, it was just a wrong use of metaphor” but the damage has been done, the attack was flying from all corners.

Ahead of the Madrid derby Atletico Madrid's Captain Koke talked about Vinicius' dance and what might happen. The report of what he said sparked a crazy reaction from everyone, myself included. I said to myself “Why will a player like Koke say such, is he threatening Vini?”. I looked forward to Vinicius scoring in the match and the whole squad (Real Madrid) dancing together.

Rodrygo (Another Brazilian playing for Madrid scored and he danced with Vini while some other players tried to join. I was happy and so were many other people.

However, while I was trying to get more details for this post I checked Koke’s interview and realized what he said wasn’t bad, he was just stating the obvious. Though clubs can warn their fans and punish those caught abusing players of the opposing team or theirs, they can’t control how the fans react to teams scoring against them. All he said was Vini should expect a hostile welcome from the home fan, it wasn’t a threat.

He added “If in the end he scores and decides to dance, well, it’s what he wants to do. Would I understand it or not? Everyone has their own way of being and of celebrating goals as they please” I believe Vini understand this as one of his teammates later confirmed on Twitter that the reaction wasn’t because of what Koke said but what the agent said.

Whatever it is, I’m happy Vini danced in front of the fans and I, look forward to more dances from him. Whichever way the fans wish to react, it’s left to them.

Thanks for Reading! ⚽️💙⚽️