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Kevin-Prince Boateng once claimed that scoring a goal is like making love, although in a much more crude way. Even though I have no idea about scoring - like, in any place, at all - I can claim that scoring a goal is indeed something special when you look at how players tend to celebrate them.
Okay, now let's talk about celebrations. Every player has his own style of enjoying a goal. Some slide, some salute, some kiss the ring finger or a tattoo on their bodies and so on. However, sometimes, even celebrations go awry as players get injured for performing something over the top.
And here are 5 such instances when that happened....
#5 Martin Palermo
One of the most favourite players of Diego Maradona – it was his goal that almost sealed the qualification of Argentina in the 2010 World Cup – Martin Palermo actually missed the 2002 World Cup after getting injured while playing for his then club, Villarreal.
The retired Argentine scored a goal in the extra-time of a Copa del Rey encounter against Levante and ran off to celebrate with the fans. Things got awry when a small concrete wall collapsed on him and broke his tibia and fibula – which put him out of action for 6 months.
He returned to action the following season, but had already missed the World Cup and could never really regain the form that made him a deadly striker back in Argentina.
#4 Lua Lua
Back then, Harry Redknapp was the manager of Portsmouth and his team were facing Arsenal in a Premier League game. Obviously, Wenger’s men were looking to consolidate their position as the fourth best team in England – (some things never change, do they? Oh, actually they have now) – and Portsmouth were looking to put a hurdle in the way.
And they successfully managed to put a halt in Arsenal’s surge, but it wasn’t without a mishap. The man who scored the goal for the Pompey was a weirdly named Lomana Lua Lua. Despite not being among the tallest strikers, he managed to jump above the Arsenal defenders and head the ball past the goalkeeper.
However, what happened after that was a tragic comedy. Lua Lua tried a triple somersault, after earlier vowing to not do it until his team were safe from the relegation zone (which they weren’t), and hurt his ankle in the process.
#3 Nicolai Muller
This is the most recent among all the incidents on this list. His injury was basically the source of the idea of this slideshow. The weirdest part about it was that it wasn’t really an over the top sort of celebration, which makes one feel all the more depressing about being joyous in life.
After scoring the opening – and, as it turned out, the only – goal of the game, Nicolai Muller, playing for Hamburg, ran towards the corner post on his left while doing a very unorthodox carousel-spin sort of celebration, the kind you would do with your child.
However, things went awry when he jumped on the spin and fell while twisting his knee. The result? An ACL injury that sees him out of action for the next 7 months while also potentially finishing his career as a decent footballer.
#2 Celestine Babayaro
You know, some things in life make little sense. Like, for example, the contribution of mosquitoes to the food chain, how Donald Trump managed to become the president of the USA, celebrating goals in pre-season friendly games and celebrating goals with audacious summersaults.
But when you combine the last two things into one, you realise that you have the mother of all the WTF moments.
So this is what Celestine Babayaro gifted to Chelsea fans when he celebrated a goal by doing his ‘trademark’ summersault goal celebration in a pre-season friendly game for Chelsea. He had only just joined the Blues and was playing in his first pre-season for the Londoners, but broke his leg doing his goal celebration.
#1 Paulo Diogo
There are certain click-bait-y advertisements on the internet that make sure about going overboard with outrageous claims like the neighbouring aunt does about her child’s achievements. The most common phrases run parallel to, “you won’t believe how the dragon ball zee'd in,” or, “you will never support only one team alone after watching Liverpool play.”
However, if there was ever a time when one could make such a claim without being exaggerative, it is this one.
Basically, you will never jump over a fence to celebrate with fans after watching this (if the Martin Palermo incident wasn’t enough for you). After setting up a goal (?!), Paulo Diogo, playing for Servette FC, jumped and clung to the top of a metal fence that separated the fans from the pitch.
Marriage is often labelled as the detachment from freedom, but in this case, it turned out to be the detachment of finger as Diogo wedding ring got caught in the barrier – unbeknownst to him.
As he jumped off the barrier, he severed a bit of his finger. The stewards later found it out, but the doctors couldn’t reattach it. Oh, and meanwhile, to add salt to the wound, the referee gave him a yellow card for wasting time with excessive celebration.
Life sucks, bro.
