Sliding On Your Knees = Not Clever
By: Daryl | April 6th, 2009
Have you ever watched a professional football do the “sliding on the knees” goal celebration and thought “that could end badly”?
I cringe every time. Sure it looks cool, gliding along the turf with your arms out. And I’m no certified physiotherapist. But I’m pretty sure that fully functioning knees are an important part of any footballer’s toolbag. And it was only a matter of time before one of them got injured while sliding along in celebration. Which is exactly what happened this weekend.
Sergio Garcia scored the first goal for Real Betis in the 3-3 draw with Numancia, after just nine minutes. He went with the knee-sliding celebration, got it a bit wrong and was substituted with a twisted lateral ligament in his left knee soon after.
You can see Garcia’s celebration in this video after he scores the first goal:
You can see from the La Liga Primera Division table that Betis are in trouble:
One point clear of the relegation zone (bottom three go down) with nine games to play. And now Garcia – Betis’ top scorer – and will miss most if not all of the rest of the season.
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Category: Spain La Liga
Tags: Real Betis, Sergio Garcia, sliding knee celebration, Spain La Liga, World Football, World SoccerSubscribe
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Comments
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Even if you don’t tear something one time or something like that, doing it repeatedly is VERY bad for the joints/ligaments/well…every part of the knee, so you’d really mess yourself up after a while, and it would end your career and most likely your ability to walk.
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United States
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The French TV chanel has a promo where they show Thierry Henry doing this over and over. I wince and cringe every time I see it.
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United States -
Mallorca a nice second half surge.. Weren’t they rock bottom around Christmas? I guess the addition of superb shotstopper GK Dudu Aouate has helped steady the ship…
As for the knee slide – it’s always dangerous when the surface is wet – I’m always scared Drogba or Ronaldo will go flying off the wet pitch and into the advertisement boards on the sideline..
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United States -
It’s not as bad as it looks. Those fields are quite soft and forgiving in most cases, unless we’re talking about Wigan’s field.
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United States -
Sneakers O’Toole! Take off those sneakers!
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United States -
I’m not sure I understand how it would be dangerous if the field is smooth. Can anyone please elaborate?
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Australia -
why couldnt it have been fernando torres? i hate him, but he has the best goal celebration around.
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United States -
Kamran, you’re still placing an awkward force on your knees (i.e. putting a lot of your weight directly on them). So even if you’re on the smoothest, fluffiest surface, you’re stressing your knee in a way knees aren’t supposed to be stressed.
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United States -
I’ve never verified this, but I remember reading somewhere that Old Gunnar Solksjaer’s recurring knee problems were a result of the knee slide during the 99 Champions League final.
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United States -
How long until one of them hits a sprinkler head embedded in the turf? Ouch.
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United States -
After ripping my knee cap off its safe to say that I would never attempt that. Christ knows my luck my knee would be dislocated again. Your knee could always get stuck on some turf or be in the right place at the wrong time and you would be in some serious pain. Like the back flip celebration…what would happen?
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United States -
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Who was the first to do the knee slide celebration?
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United States
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