To Celebrate, Or Not To Celebrate?

Consider This – A corporate lawyer has a dream to make it to the very top. He’s worked at this firm for some time, and worked with dedication, getting in clients and expanding business, but now a bigger firm has offered him a job, which he’s accepted. Now, a famous entrepreneur is looking for representation and our aforementioned friend brings him to his new firm, edging out his previous employers in the process. The firm celebrates the arrival of a million-dollar client, and since he’s the one who brought the client in, he celebrates with gusto as well. Seems reasonable?

Now, try and relate this to the world of football. A player, motivated to don the jersey of the elite clubs, gives it his all at a lower club, scoring goals and making them, which earns him an offer from a bigger club. He’s simply doing what he’s paid to do, and that may involve him helping his current club beat his previous one by scoring. Sure, everyone understands that, but it’s what follows the scoring of the goal that determines if the player is classy and faithful or a disrespectful traitor.

You can take the example of Robert Lewandowski, who celebrated after scoring against Dortmund, as did Van Persie against Arsenal, as did James Milner against us! The list goes on with Emmanuel Adebayor against Arsenal and David Luiz against Chelsea. These are just a handful of those who have openly rejoiced after scoring for their club at the expense of the one they once played for.

For every yin there’s a yang, and we also have examples of players who chose not to celebrate on scoring versus their former club. A few of them are Frank Lampard against Chelsea, Fernando Torres against Atletico, Cristiano Ronaldo against Man United, Griezmann against Sociedad and most recently, Van Persie against United.

I’m not trying to defend the former group of players, but I will say this – We as fans have a club that we’re close to, that we stand by through triumph or tribulation. We are the 12^th man of the club. To us, the stadium is no ordinary piece of architecture, just like its jersey is no ordinary cut of cloth. But, just like the example at the start of this post, a professional desires to enhance his career and play for a club that he truely associates himself with. Keeping that in mind, it is quite understandable that they do not share the same mentality as us fans.

Ultimately, of course, 2 main factors come into play – The player’s personality and on what terms the player departed. But once you willingly sign on the dotted line of a new club, you leave behind your previous one and you move on, towards a destination that you made your own, to a new atmosphere, new teammates, new supporters and players, to a new beginning. Hence, the opinion of this blogger is that celebrating a goal against your former club is nothing to be condemned…

-AyushV11 (Follow me on Twitter!)