After scoring a goal in soccer, a player can do a few things: celebrate individually or with teammates, taunt the opposing fans or do the less-than-exciting thing and run back to his half, ball in hand.
What a player can’t do is throw the Nazi salute. In a Greek league match on Saturday, AEK Athens’ 20-year-old midfielder Giorgos Katidis scored in the 84th minute against Veria, then proceeded to race to the corner flag and made the universally detested gesture, which can be seen below. Of course, the Associated Press notes that Katidis “has earned rebukes from politicians, fellow athletes and fans,” and AEK’s German coach, Ewald Lienen, has claimed naivete on Katidis’ part.
The latter would be acceptable, since 20 year olds can be f*cking assholes, but not when an athlete’s Greek. Since Greece’s fiscal problems have rendered the country more worthless than Wayne post-codeine, Greece has become a hotbed for right-wing xenophobia. Essentially, it resembles Germany in the mid-1930s.
So Katidis can’t claim innocence. He should know better, not to mention Greek Olympian Voula Papachristou set the example for what constitutes xenophobia at last summer’s London games. Katidis really could’ve done anything else like moon the opposing fans or flip the bird to a camera guy.
Or, my personal favorite, mimicked blowing lines of coke using the endline. Then he would’ve just been enjoyably silly. Instead, Katidis hailed Hitler. Womp womp.
Update: The Greek FA has banned Katidis for life from the Greek national team for the celebration.
Via: Yahoo! Sports