I confess my sympathy for Real Zaragoza and its La Romareda stadium, I admire the loyalty of the fans in bad times – eleven consecutive seasons in Segona hell – and I admit my faith in the Virgin of the Pilar, author of Nayim’s goal at the Parc des Princes in Paris against Arsenal, which won the 1995 Cup Winners’ Cup.
Having said that, who can think of celebrating a goal in a professional club these days based on touching, ostensibly, and on two occasions – just in case there were any doubts – the parties? In number 20 of Real Zaragoza, named Víctor Mollejo Carpintero…
When I saw live on television the celebration of the goal of “la tranquillitat”, the last of Zaragoza’s victory in Cartagena (1-3), I did not give credit.
-Mollejo, with everything that is happening!
For a moment, I came to think that it was about the counter-reformation, a gesture of solidarity with Luis Rubiales. What had been missing: to start celebrating goals like this.
Unlike the player and Rubiales, someone in the organization must have taken the footballer aside – one of those who give everything and sweat the shirt – and sang the cane to him or made him look like he still needed three, six or a thousand penalty matches, because the referee recorded the gesture in the minutes. The truth is that it did not take long for the celebrant to show his regret and request for an apology. “It is a gesture that obviously does not correspond to the education I have. Now, in the cold, I really regret it. It was not at all meaningful or directed at anyone. I want to apologize to all the people who felt offended and say I’m sorry.”
And now what do we do? Turn over or give a lesson to the new generations?
Victor Mollejo is not a candidate for the Ballon d’Or and has a good, albeit limited, reputation, which is why one is in favor of concluding the incident without an exemplary sanction, but pretending to the player that it is appropriate to read the press – the Heraldo de Aragón is a great newspaper – and get off the tree.
The worst thing about the celebration of Víctor Mollejo is that it can cause a controversy: should the regulations be reformed and should it be stipulated more concretely and specify what we do with provocative gestures? Because a goal shoots adrenaline and gives euphoria.
Mollejo is not Hugo Sánchez – who claimed that he had only “accommodated his parts” (addressing the audience at Camp Nou on the night of the accident-prone 1990 Super Cup, the one with the Urizar trample) – nor the times are the same…
The Mollejo affair has been referred to the Competition Committee and the Anti-Violence Committee, a bad sign for the interests of the penitent and his club. It’s one after the other.
