Diving and babies - Goal celebrations

One of the oft-repeated quotes from footballers is that scoring goals is better than sex... But how do they celebrate? We know from the age of webcams and kiss-and-tells that perhaps goals are more important, we don't often see too many Dirty Den style poses or dances.

Some goal celebrations are good. Some are bad. The biased fan at the ground doesn't always appreciate them. Some players even get a sense of self-importance about a former club that they just stand there looking solemn.

Klinsmann Air, first stop Sheffield

In 1994, Tottenham pulled off a massive coup by signing Germany striker Jurgen Klinsmann, and with it his massive reputation (in England anyway) for being a diver... Of course these days we'd have saw this coming, but back then, irony in sport had yet to be invented and of course Jurgen certainly wanted to make a splash. After his first goal, he ran to the touchline and flung himself to the ground, and into all the papers. And then he quickly flounced off to Bayern Munich, having had the audacity to fall our with Alan Sugar.

The hands that rock the cradle

1994 was hardly a vintage year for football, and definitely not for goal celebrations. The above effort was from the World Cup of that year, after Bebeto scoring against Holland in the quarter-finals. While a father will always be proud, and no doubt lighting cigars is a yellow card offence, was it necessary to spawn this? According to Wikipedia, this made Bebeto a household name... While no Romario, the fact that he had scored 31 goals prior to this is surely more memorable...

Hands up who wants to sit on the MOTD couch?

Boring. Saw it far too often... I'm sure Newcastle fans enjoyed it.

Catch of the Day

Icelandic club Stjarnan seem to be the latest fad, with Youtube-friendly celebrations such as reeling in fish etc. Funny at first. Like British sitcoms or a good debut album - I look forward to new material, but perhaps best to stop where they are.

Like earlier blogs, it comes across like the writer pines for ye olde days, where men would shake hands after a goal and get back to kicking each other. Goal celebrations are part of the game now. Let's hope we get some new, original efforts.

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