I knew as soon as Fernando Torres scored against Atletico Madrid last night he wouldn’t celebrate and I also knew that he would get heavily criticised for it.

Commentators on Twitter and other social media outlets were quick to have a go. A few of the newspapers have also picked up on it and tried to rip the man to shreds. It always happens when a player refuses to celebrate scoring against a former side.

For me? Well I admire the stance.

Torres spent seven years at Atletico as a professional, having come up through their youth system. He played 243 times for El Atleti scoring 91 times.

They are a club close to his heart, without them then he wouldn’t be where he is today. So in a sign of dignity he showed his former supporters and employers some respect by not celebrating his goal.

Why can’t some people just accept that?

These pundits and fans go on about ‘Chelsea pay his wages’… Very true that’s why he scored the goal. He is a professional and did his job. The job description for a striker is to score as many goals as possible, not to celebrate every goal with as much joy as humanly possible.

Then we have others who state its a Champions League semi final. Well we are talking about a player that has won the Champions League, the Euros and a World Cup. He has been there before, so shouldn’t be too overcome with a goal at that stage. Had he acted wildly, would that have not been more of a surprise.

Its seems very odd to me that we can’t just let people be. Too many need to pick on every little detail.

We attack players for demanding moves away from clubs and get mad when they earn fortunes. We hate all the play acting and constantly question certain player for their lack of morals. Yet when a footballer does show that he respects his past and reacts the way Torres did last night then we still get those that complain.

Sometimes we just have to remember that you can’t keep everyone happy. So strikers should stick to what they do best, scoring goals (Fernando Torres could be doing with scoring more to be honest) and celebrate however they like!

Posted on May 1st, 2014 by scott
Filed under: Article