The Most Controversial Player Celebrations in Football

Celebrations and gestures made by players are part of every sport to some degree. The joy and emotion of a player is usually obvious, for example after they score a goal in football. Of course, there are players who let emotion or bad judgment take charge in these instances. Arguing with officials and other players, taunting the opposition or making rude gestures to the crowd are all occurrences observed from time to time.

The world of football is no different. For instance, recently West Bromwich Albion striker Nicolas Anelka, (right) was involved in a controversy caused by one such celebration.
The French striker attracted criticism when he performed a gesture called a ‘quenelle.’ Anelka insists the ‘quenelle’ is an anti-establishment gesture and was done in support of his comedian friend, and ‘quenelle’ creator, comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala. Critics of the gesture see it as reminiscent of the Nazi salute and the FA, English football’s governing body, agreed fining Anelka £80,000 and banning him for 5 matches.

Anelka’s case raises the question of other footballers who have celebrated or made gestures deemed inappropriate during a match. There are many, but here are some of the most controversial player celebrations and gestures witnessed in professional football.


Goading Fans:

In September 2009, Manchester City hosted Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium. The game was significant as it saw former Gunner, Emmanuel Adebayor (below) face off against his old club for the first time since leaving North London. Arsenal supporters were disappointed with Adebayor’s departure and by his perceived lack of respect for the club. Having booed and taunted the Togolese striker for most the match, Arsenal supporters were sent into a rage when Adebayor scored in the final 10 minutes and ran the length of the pitch before sliding to his knees to celebrate in front of them. Objects were thrown at the player and a steward was injured in the process. Adebayor was given a yellow card and given a £25,000 fine and a two-match suspended ban.

In a similar action to Adebayor, Manchester United defender Gary Neville was fined £5,000 pounds and warned about his future conduct by the Football Association a few weeks later, after ran to celebrate a late Rio Ferdinand goal in front of the Liverpool fans at Old Trafford.

The Drug User:

Unsurprisingly, any celebration which appears to suggest drug use is deemed unacceptable by footballs governing bodies. Step forward Robbie Fowler.
In April 1999, Liverpool squared off against Merseyside rivals Everton. Before the match, there were reports and accusations by some Everton supporters that Liverpool’s Fowler had a drug abuse problem. The Reds’ striker responded after scoring a goal by pretending to snort up the penalty area line as if it were a line of cocaine.
The FA fined Fowler £60,000 and banned him for 4 matches.

In the Russian League, Spartak Moscow striker Emmanuel Emenike was shown a straight red following his goal celebration against Zenit St. Petersburg. What did he do wrong? Emenike celebration involved slapping the inside of his arm, as if preparing for an imaginary heroine injection. The official deemed it ‘obscene’ and sent him off.

Northern Ireland's David Healy suffered a similar fate in an international match at the Millennium Stadium. Having put Northern Ireland 2-0 up against Wales, he celebrated by high-kicking the corner flag and then indulging in his stock celebration - slapping the muscle on one arm into the palm of his other hand. To Healy it was par for the course, but the referee Domenico Messina perceived it to be an unacceptable gesture. He gave Healy one yellow for that and another for his shaolin on the corner flag. The consequence was one of the most peculiar red cards of all time.

Genital Chomping:

Sevilla midfielder Francisco Gallardo was charged by the Spanish soccer federation's disciplinary committee after he celebrated a teammate's goal by biting the player's genitals back in November 2001.
Jose Antonio Reyes made a dazzling run from the halfway line to net Sevilla's second goal in the 55th minute of their 4-0 win over Valladolid.
After Reyes' brilliant strike, the scorer fell to the ground and was immediately besieged by a group of ecstatic teammates. Gallardo ran to join the melee and instead of hugging Reyes, was seen to bend down and take a momentary nibble at the goalscorer's genitalia.
Gallardo was fined and suspended by the Spanish Football Federation who deemed his actions as violating “sporting dignity and decorum."

Handcuff Celebration:

Players often use goal celebrations to make reference to friends, family or events. The rocking arms or thumb-sucking to rejoice in a new baby, or the kissing of the ring-finger to pay tribute to a spouse are common celebrations. Celebrations which are political or agenda-driven are frowned upon by the governing authorities. The ‘handcuff’ celebration is rare but has been used on more than one occasion. Often to show support for a friend or family member on trial or in jail, this celebration is also used to signify some sort of injustice in the player’s life. It is therefore no surprise that players like Everton’s Tim Cahill in 2008, Chelsea’s Nicolas Anelka in 2010 and Salomon Kalou in 2009, as well as Ipswich’s David Norris in 2008 all celebrated goals using a little post-goal handcuffery, and were all heavily criticized as a result for their behaviour.

The Fascist Salute:

This is a celebration guaranteed to get negative attention, bans and fines. The fascist salute not only crosses the ‘no-political celebration’ line, but is also deemed by almost everyone as totally inappropriate. Perhaps the most well known advocate of this celebration was Paolo Di Canio. After 14 years away from the club he supported as a child, followed as an ultra and served as a young footballer, a 36-year-old Di Canio returned in 2004 to see out his top-level career, yet his two-year stint with Lazio was anything but a retirement break. During his time with the Serie A side, Di Canio was pictured giving the supporters the salute numerous times. After the third occasion in a year in which he had raised his right arm, palm-downwards, to the fans of his team he faced the full wrath of Fifa, with Sepp Blatter, president of world soccer's governing body Fifa, saying players making fascist salutes should be banned from the game for life.

The negative publicity that Di Canio generated for Lazio, including his intimate relationship with club's ultras and their increased influence thanks to his presence in the team, coupled with problems with some teammates and coaches, exasperated club president and majority shareholder, Claudio Lotito, with whom he already had a difficult relationship. As a result, Di Canio's contract was not renewed in the summer of 2006.

Recently, Greek player Giorgos Katidis (right) was handed a life ban from the Greek National team, banned for the season by AEK Athens and fine $82,000 for giving this salute after scoring the winning goal against Veria, in March 2013.
Katidis claims he was dedicating the game winning goal to a friend in the stands. Officials saw it differently!

The Execution:

In recent years, Mexico has developed a reputation for drug and gun violence. In light of this, one would expect soccer players in Mexico to show some restraint when it comes to incorporating anything related to these issues into their celebrations. Marco Fabian de la Mora and Alberto Medina, both players for Chivas Guadalajara, clearly did not pick up on this point. In their 5-2 win over Estudiantes UAG in October 2011, the two celebrated one of the goals with De la Mora pretending to execute Medina with a gunshot to the head. Both players were fined $3,700. De la Mora stated regret for the celebration and but both men paid double the fine, which was then donated, along with offerings from their team-mates - to an orphanage in Ciudad Juarez, a border town known for drug related violence.

The Golf Swing:

Never too far from controversy in his younger days, Craig Bellamy found himself involved in a row with Liverpool teammate John Arne Riise on a trip to Portugal back in
Bellamy made the newspapers after confronting Riise with a golf club when the left back refused to sing karaoke at the team bonding exercise.
Days later, the Wales international was on target against no lesser opposition than Barcelona in February 2007 - as was Riise - and mocked the incident by swinging an imaginary club.

The Hitler Salute:


Yes, I have already had a section related to this type of gesture. Mark Bosnich (right) however, took it to a whole new level when his team Aston Villa played Tottenham Hotspur in October 1996. In a career marked with cocaine use, cross dressing sex tapes and cancelled contracts, the Australian-born keeper made many poor choices. One of those took place at White Hart Lane. Bosnich, after considerable taunting from the Spurs’ supporters, simulated a mustache with his finger and gave the crowd a Nazi salute. As Tottenham have a significant Jewish fanbase, the action did not go over well with the crowd. Surprisingly, the punishment was very lenient in today’s terms. The FA labeled Bosnich’s actions as “an act of stupidity,” yet only censured the keeper and fined him $1,500. Given Anelka’s ‘quenelle’ punishment, one wonders what Bosnich would have received in today’s game.

The Mock Flute:

What could be worse than Nazi salutes, drug and execution simulations and the biting of a teammate’s privates? How about an act that insults fans, aggravates religious tensions, and results in death threats by the IRA?

Glasgow Rangers versus Celtic is one of the fiercest derbies you will find in football. The two Scottish teams are historically divided along political-religious lines with Republican/Catholics traditionally supporting Celtic and Loyalist/Protestants following Rangers. In January 1998, Rangers midfielder Paul Gascoigne tested these divisions by simulating playing a mock flute, a symbol of Loyalists and the Orange Order. The midfielder had done the gesture in 1995, but never at an Old Firm match. Unsurprisingly, Celtic supporters and Catholics did not take well to it. In addition to being fined $33,000 and disciplined by his club for the incident. 'Gazza' also learned from this mistake. Specifically, he learned from the local police how to check mail and look under his car for bombs left by the IRA.

'Gazza' - Misguided or Misunderstood?

What to make of it all?

Last week PAUL GASCOIGNE was arrested and sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

The fallen soccer hero’s only companions while he remained holed up in a hotel room on a two-month drugs and booze binge were battery-operated parrots!.
It was reported that that the ex-England ace, 40, also wandered around the hotel with them under his arm, getting them to squawk 'Give us a kiss' and 'f*** off' to fellow guests.

One member of staff at the Malmaison Hotel said of Gazza; the other day he rang the desk to say one of his parrots had gone missing. The poor lad on duty didn't know what was going on.

He thought Gazza had a live parrot in his room and it had flown out of the window.
When he got to the room Gazza was stood there with a parrot under each arm making them say, 'F*** off, F*** off.'

He's also been answering the door naked. It got to the point where only male staff would be sent to his room.

One day he answered the door with 'MAD' scrawled on his forehead in what looked like eyeliner. He was clearly losing it, but he was just on his own all the time.
He had one or two visitors but there was no one coming regularly to see if he was ok.

His bizarre behaviour was revealed as Police confirmed that they were called to the Hilton Hotel in his hometown of Gateshead on Wednesday (20th February) following an earlier incident at the £240-a-night Malmaison Hotel nearby.

A hotel worker said in the latest incident that Gazza had set off the fire alarm, forcing guests to be evacuated. He added: The night porter was trying to get him to leave and Gazza grabbed him by the neck and started choking him. It didn't last long and then they kicked him out.

Gascoigne, who has fought a life-long battle with drink and drugs launched into his latest bender just before Christmas. He checked into the Malmaison three weeks ago — after he was kicked out of the Gateshead Marriott.



Gascoigne has been described many times as a wasted talent.
With the sensational recent events of the last week and well documented details that have come to prominence since his retirement from playing, it is tempting to see Gazza's successes as a player as monumental in the face of adversity.

Gascoigne had the talent to become one of England's most successful players of all time. However he had other things on his mind, such as his burgeoning alcohol dependence, lifelong bulimia, periodic cocaine addiction, depression, poor diet, a calamitous family life and numerous serious injuries.

That he achieved as much as he did is a testimony to the depth of his talent and his undimmed passion for playing the game.

Gazza was born in Gateshead in May 1967. He joined Newcastle United as an apprentice in 1983, made his league debut two years later against QPR and went on to make 107 League and Cup appearances for The Magpies, scoring 25 goals.

Despite being courted by Sir Alex Ferguson over a move to Old Trafford, he signed for Tottenham in July 1988 for £2.3m.

The 1990 World Cup Finals was a defining moment in Gazza's career.
Taken by Bobby Robson to Italia '90 in what was in many people's eyes considered a 'gamble' he become an integral part of an exciting 5-man England midfield, that helped England through the group stages, past Cameroon in the quarter-finals and into the semi-final against Germany. The pictures of Gazza shedding tears (right) after being booked against Germany (which would have ruled him out of the final) went all around the world and subsequently a new football star was born - Gazza the football celebrity!

Gazza-mania was as overpowering and as short lived as the remainder of Gazza's time at his footballing zenith.
For a season after his return from the World Cup Gazza played some fantastic football leading Spurs to an FA Cup Final, scoring memorable goals and continuing his fine form with England.

With a record £5.5m transfer to Italian giants Lazio looming, Gazza suffered a serious knee injury as a result of a reckless tackle in the 1991 FA Cup Final, (right) and he was never to reach the dizzy heights as a player ever again.
Worse, this was to be the first public example of the frenzied self-destructiveness that would come to dog him in later years......and in fact has to this present day!

After aggravating the injury further in an incident in a nightclub in October 1991 Gazza was out of football for a total of 16 months, before eventually finalizing his move to Lazio in September 1992 following a series of stringent fitness tests.
His time in Italy would be fractious, intermittently spectacular and blighted still further by injuries.

By 1993 — aged just 26 — he was already battling the booze. The following year he admitted beating fiancee Sheryl Kyle. She forgave him but within three months of their 1996 wedding he attacked her again.

Gazza's passion, skill and great goals won over the hearts of the Lazio fans.
Channel 4's live Football Italia show on Sunday's turned into a weekly diary of Gazza's life in Rome. Needless to say his debut was screened live and marked by a banner in the stadium which read: Gazza's Boys, we are here, to shag your women and drink your beer.'

Unsurprisingly there were moments of controversy too including a £9,000 fine for burping into a TV microphone, and the furore over Gazza's response when asked by a Norwegian camera crew if he had any message for the people of Norway ahead of their World Cup qualifier against England - 'Yes. Fuck off Norway' he replied.
In December 1993 he reported back after a Christmas break with a thigh strain, suffered getting out of bed!
Four months later he broke his leg in a freak training accident and spent a further year on the sidelines.

In 1995 a £4.3m move to Rangers led to a period of stability and arguably the most successful spell of his career. In 1996 Gascoigne picked up both the Players' Player of the Year and Football Writers' Player of the Year awards as he helped the Ibrox Club to their eighth league title in a row.

However Gazza again fell foul of his own foolhardy behaviour.
In January 1998 Gascoigne found his life being threatened by the IRA after he
mimicked playing a flute (symbolic of the flute-playing of Orange Order marchers, hated by the IRA) during an Old Firm match at Celtic Park, which was televised live on Sky Sports. He had previously done the same after scoring against Steaua Bucharest in a 1995 pre-season friendly which had gone largely unnoticed.
The gesture infuriated Celtic fans and Gascoigne was fined £20,000 by Rangers and was subjected to IRA death threats for around six months after the incident.

One other high point of his playing career came at Euro'96, where he was part of the England team that reached the semi-finals before losing again to Germany on penalties.
His brilliant goal in the 2-0 victory against Scotland will be remembered as much for the goal celebration as for the goal itself.

The 'dentist chair' celebration ( pictured right) was supposedly a gesture of defiance to those who had criticised his (and several other players) boozing antics on a recent trip abroad prior to the tournament.

Under Glenn Hoddle, Gascoigne was picked regularly over the next year and a half helping England qualify for the 1998 World Cup. But with injury and disciplinary problems affecting his game, he was left out of the final squad by Hoddle.

British tabloid newspapers showed pictures of a drunken Gascoigne eating kebabs in the early hours of the morning only a week before the final squad was due to be chosen. On being told he was out of the squad and to pack his bags, Gascoigne wrecked Hoddle's hotel room in a rage smashing a lamp and a chair and injuring his foot in the process, before being restrained.

His Rangers days were numbered when Dick Advocaat replaced Walter Smith at the helm.
In March 1998 he left Scotland and joined Middlesbrough for £3.4 million.
Personal problems limited his appearances for Boro and he later spent two seasons at Everton, and finished the 2001-02 season with the final few games of the Division One season with Burnley.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There have been a variety of views and opinions expressed since this latest episode from fans, current and ex-professional players, managers past and present and journalists alike:


Here are some of the comments I have read from football fans:

/'If he was a dog, they'd put him down.

/'Just to wish Paul Gascoigne a very speedy recovery. I was saddened to hear of this unfortunate incident. He is probably one of the greatest footballers of our time; we have all enjoyed watching him at his best, how about showing some support while he's at his lowest point to date?'

/'I'm sure he must have broken his head in that FA Cup Final, not just his leg.'

/'Unbelievably talented but prone to act like a fu*kwit off the pitch. Seemingly in terminal self-destruct mode. A shame we never saw him fulfill his true potential.'

/'Whilst he was an immense talent, he, like Best before him, let fair weather friends pump up his ego to gargantuan proportions, then left him wallowing in beer!'

/'Get well soon Gazza, you will always be a true legend, responsible for some wonderful memories.'

/'A bit like a footballing version of Amy Winehouse.'

/'Really sad to read this about Paul Gascoigne - a great player who brought pleasure to millions with his cheeky grin. We wish him well.'

/'Gazza is nothing without football, but unless he stays sober, he has nothing to offer it.'

/'He has had lots of help but still chooses to drink, add to that his other mental problems, OCD, trauma of seeing his best friend killed, (which he's had since childhood) and you have one very f***ed up individual.'

From Journalists:

/'The story began in tears, continues with tears, and barring a new age of miracles, will end in tears.'

/'Surely the only surprising aspect of Paul Gascoigne’s sectioning this week under the Mental Health Act is that it took them until now to lock him up. This man-child’s desire for self-destruction, demonstrated over many years of emotional incontinence, is so intense that he stands on the abyss.'

/'A talented footballer, who could make himself understood only when he had his boots on, has never come to terms with the demands of adult life, and never will. It is not quite a tragedy, as some have said, but it is very sad.'

/'Once regarded as one of the world's best footballers, Gascoigne's playing career was plagued by personal problems, many linked to his heavy drinking.'

/'I see no Greek tragedy in Gasgoigne's chaos. I feel as sorry for him as I do for any damaged, addicted person. The man had great talent and must, at his peak, have earned enough to buy out the local bank. But he was weak, not heroic. He lacked either a sense of responsibility or the inner resources to tackle his illness.
Everything, as is the case with every alcoholic, has always been someone else's fault, not his.'

/'Perhaps Paul Gascoigne can only be explained by the romantic myths of genius. One way or another, they say, artists pay for their art.'

/'It may be that all Gasgoigne wants to do is quietly continue his path of slow-motion self-destruction. If so, respect him, and respect his right to choose; but please do not sensationalise his illness.'

From ex-players/managers:

/Former England teammate Gareth Southgate, who now manages Middlesbrough, was confident Gascoigne would get well.
'He has shown a willingness to try to come through it in the past and he is obviously going to have to do that again,' Southgate said. 'He would do anything for anybody and, hopefully, people will do the same for him now because he obviously needs that help.'

/Sunderland manager Roy Keane, who often played against Gascoigne, said his problems stemmed from how players dealt with life after retirement.
'That is a problem, particularly with a lot of footballers when you stop playing, there is a massive gap in your life,' Keane said. 'We all pray that Paul finds a bit of peace and serenity because he deserves it.'

/'I do hope that things start working out better for Gazza,' Everton manager David Moyes said. Gascoigne played for two years under Moyes until 2002 — his last Premier League club.
'He is a good man, a good person and was always willing to help others. Everyone at this club will tell you that. When I have been around him he has proved to be a real gent. We all here hope he gets the help he needs.'

/Kevin Keegan was a player at Newcastle when Gascoigne first began his career in the 1980's.
He believes Paul Gascoigne's detention for mental health problems could be the best thing for him.
Keegan said, 'It's sad, but maybe what has happened now will be a turning point for him, and instead of looking on it as something that is really bad, this might be the best thing.'



Just a small sample selection of the mixed & divided feelings on Gazza.
On this subject YOU will have to decide for yourself what the score is...................