FFT.com's Rob Burnett finds the 10 best goal celebrations on YouTube
Once upon a time, goal celebrations werenâÂÂt all that watchable. Ask Frenchman Lucien Laurent, the first man ever to score a World Cup goal, at Uruguay 1930. âÂÂEveryone was pleased but we didn't all roll around on the ground,â he recalled. âÂÂA quick handshake and we got on the with game.âÂÂ
By Bobby CharltonâÂÂs era it was acceptable to celebrate a goal by breaking into a run, perhaps with a little jump followed by a half-hearted wave. Don't go too mad, though â it's not very English.
1. Bobby Charlton keeps it simple â VIDEO
However, we're now in an age of routines so synchronised you suspect the players put more effort into choreography than training. You can just see half a dozen footballers in one of those mirrored rooms with someone in a leotard shouting, âÂÂNo Djibril! ItâÂÂs back flip, back flip, pirouette, conga! How hard can it be?!âÂÂ
Keeping away from the High School Musical wannabes, letâÂÂs stick to spontaneity. King of the riposte must be Robbie Fowler, the man who reacted to crowd taunts about his off-field habits by smacking his head â and, on one glorious occasion, mocked Everton fansâ âÂÂcokeheadâ jibe by snorting the white (goal)line. The FA didnâÂÂt find it funny and banned him for four games.
2. Robbie Fowler gets sniffy â VIDEO
Another Liverpool striker reacting to allegations was Craig Bellamy, aka âÂÂthe nutter with the putterâÂÂ. After allegedly going after team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf club (which Bellamy denied â Legal Ed), he marked a goal at Barcelona with his best golf swing. Fore!
3. Craig Bellamy gets swinging â VIDEO
Also turning a media furore into a demonstration of joy was Paul Gascoigne with his âÂÂdentistâÂÂs chairâ routine. After much tabloid tutting over an exuberant drinking session during a pre-Euro 96 tour of Hong Kong, he celebrated his goal against Scotland with a reconstruction of said events.
4. Gazza gets refreshed â VIDEO
Then thereâÂÂs the enjoyably different Stephen Ireland, who marked a goal for Manchester City against Sunderland by dropping his shorts to reveal his Superman undies. He didnâÂÂt get a card, but the FA did say âÂÂWe will be reminding him of his responsibilities.â To wear clean pants, perhaps?
5. Ireland shows his grundies â VIDEO
The trouble with good ideas is that they spawn a thousand tacky imitations, and the âÂÂbabyâ celebration initiated by Bebeto, Romario and Mazinho at USA 94 is now such old hat that Martin OâÂÂNeill has forbidden his players from doing it.
6. Brazil start an irksome trend â VIDEO
âÂÂI don't care if they have just had twins, quadruplets, 19 children at the one time â if they go up and do that when they score a goal, I will go ballistic,â said the man who looks like this when celebrating.
At least Carlos TevezâÂÂs homage to his daughter was a bit more original: after netting against Birmingham City last year, he pulled a babyâÂÂs dummy from his shorts and stuck it in his mouth.
7. Tevez doesn't spit the dummy â VIDEO
Enough of pre-planned nonsense. The best celebrations come from the heart, not the brain â think Marco Tardelli in the final of Espana 82 (one of 10 other celebrations we featured in a previous Best of the Web).
When a player scores an important goal you donâÂÂt see the fans in the stands forming a human pyramid â they're too busy jumping up and down, screaming and generally going mental. Fans like to see their heroes on the pitch doing the same.
No one epitomised this better than Stuart Pearce exorcising his penalty demons from Italia 90 at Euro 96. After he buried his spot-kick against Spain he roared with a visceral combination of pride, joy, relief, belief and just about every other emotion you can name.
8. "And Psycho screaming..." VIDEO
Also prone to an emotional outburst is Jose Mourinho, and as Chelsea boss he liked little more than success against Barcelona. He didnâÂÂt let the cost of his designer suit dissuade him from a good old knee-slide. He'll simply never get those grass stains out.
9. Mourinho slides â VIDEO
Not all managers are as cool, though. As our final clip, see David Pleat gambolling across the Maine Road turf in his beige suit after Luton had avoided relegation in 1983. He might have pulled it off had he not decided to button up his jacket halfway through. Then again...
10. Pleat's hop, skip and jump â VIDEO
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