In football, the pure joy of scoring a goal/goal celebration will make any footballer celebrate with teammates or fans or sometimes with his coach. However, some players tend to cause controversy with their celebrations.

Some players make a controversial gesture, some players taunt opposition fans after scoring, while some just make inappropriate gestures after scoring.

Famous players have their signature celebrations.

So, who is this player that got banned for life from his national team and what kind of Goal celebration did he do? Well, find out below.

The Player
Giorgos Katidis.

Katidis is a Greek footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder. Katidis last played for FK Pirbham in the 2018/19 season.

The Celebration and Incident.


Katidis was playing for AEK Athens against Veria on the 16th of March 2013, when he scored the winning goal for his team. To celebrate the goal, Katidis took off his jersey and raised his hand to perform a very political and controversial salute.

Katidis gave a Nazi Salute when he was celebrating his winning goal against Veria in 2013. His celebration sparked international media condemnation.

Giorgos Katidis’s coach at the time also stated that the player knew nothing about politics.

After the incident, Greek Football Federation voted unanimously to ban Giorgos Katidis from all National Teams for life.

Katidis took it too far by celebrating in the way that he did in 2013. Football player occasionally copy eachother’s celebration style, but no one will want to repeat what Katidis did in 2013.