Riccardo Calafiori admits he’s embarrassed by the way he celebrated his first goal for Arsenal claiming his mind went blank in the moment.
The Italy international opened his Gunners account in outrageous fashion to equalise against Manchester City in September’s 2-2 draw, finding the top corner with a first-time left-foot hit that was always curling away from goalkeeper Edison.
So pure was the strike that the full-back’s arms went up in expectation before the net had even rippled. He then made a beeline for the touchline, aggressively pointing at nobody in particular before jumping on top of manager Mikel Arteta.
Speaking to BBC Football Focus about his debut, he reflected: “You couldn’t play a more difficult game than this.
“When he [Martinelli] played the ball to me, I just say now I want to shoot in the top bins, you call it like this? Or in the corner.
“I don’t know, it’s not myself who run to Arteta, it was another person, I don’t know. And I was kept doing this [pointing] but I don’t know to who, I swear. I was like blank.
“Yeah, I’m embarrassed. What have I done? What have I done?”
It was very funny, to be fair. While the gaffer was delighted to see the ball go in, he did seem somewhat taken aback by the new boy’s eagerness to share an embrace.
Anyway, keep it up Riccardo, more of these embarrassing moments, please.
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You can watch Gooner Ronan Kemp’s full Football Focus feature with Riccardo here.
He done good
I’ll always remember when Frimmy pretended to shout “Mikel” while driving Saka around on the golf cart. Bukayo nearly shat himself. I don’t think Arteta is a the kind of manager that you hug after scoring a goal or have a laugh with by nutmegging him when he’s facing the other way. He’s a disciplinarian and clearly feels he needs a level of disconnection from his players. And that’s part of this culture which is working so well for us. But Cala shouldn’t feel embarrassed. You do what you do in that moment. For some reason I always take my… Read more »
Question regarding this :
In the current Arsenal squad, who do you think is parched?
Disclaimer – I will not accept the answer Martin Odegaard even though it’s almost definitely correct.
Pretty sure Arteta does and has hugged players, but there’s a time and a place and the relationship needs to be there, you don’t just hug a person you’ve just met. And I think he was also more reacting to Calafiori pointing at the crowd, trying to prevent him from instigating an Anfield vs. Xhaka type reaction or just in general being disrespectful.
Definitely lol’d at Calafiori’s recounting of it though, I think in moments of pure euphoria it’s easy to lose oneself so I don’t blame him at all for having a doofus moment, we’ve all been there.
City can’t have crowd roaring for them.
Even in large numbers, 12 year olds don’t really roar- its more of a shrieking sound like when mom says it’s time to put away the playstation
Haha! Even the Poznan looks like an angry toddler turning their back and stomping their feet…
Even their celebrations are stolen from another club.
Pure instinct! Nothing to be embarrassed about. You only made the fans love you all the more, Cala.
I love seeing that players are really creating a dislike for Man City team. Fuck them, nobody cares what they think!!
Lol nothing wrong with it! Just a man who was over the moon to score a goal like that! And he should be!
A goal like that in a match like that against opponent like that?? I’d definitely go wild
Already a Legend..😂😂
Tavarez had his chaotic energy but couldn’t control it. Seems like Calafiori can manage it.
Just watched the interview, really made me smile 😁
Just pure passion, never apologise
So glad that that shitty, boring interlull is now finally over!
LET THE REAL FOOTBALL NOW RESUME!!!
Massive game against Bournemouth coming up on Saturday evening: absolute must-win. But definitely NOT an easy game.
COME ON YOU RIP-ROARING REDS!!!
Definitely not gonna be easy with all of our injuries. Hopefully at least Captain Bukayo will be back, assuming Odegaard still won’t be. To play without either of them would be really tough.
Rumours are that Saka will be ok for Saturday. He was sent home from the England camp as a precautionary. Also Odegaard not as badly injured as reported and could be back very soon.
Bournemouth will be well rested and playing at home, much like every opponent we face after a cl game or international break, but also they’re doing pretty poorly this season and will want to kick start their campaign against us. Not an easy fixture, even if we have made it look that way in seasons past.
As top-level football becomes more and more like a business, we have to have moments of pure joy and pure skill to keep us alive. Well done, Riccardo!
To be honest, I don’t care how Ricky celebrates his goals, as long as there are plenty of them!
Superb going forward.
Work to do defensively but I believe he will get there.
Love him already but he will never unseat my first love…….. Benny❤️
Any news on Tomi?
Oh yeah, and “what have you done”.
Youve just scared the fuck outa City and Pep etc……
Like “ we’re coming to get u”
You bang them in on the regular.. and I’m sure Mikel will happily hug you and your excessive celebration each and every time 🙂
I got nothing against foreign players but we, the normal supporters are ashamed.
Sacarsm is a tight rope to walk, hang in there mio amico.
What do they think of today’s Blog?
“Tony Pulis has his say on non-English managers:
I’ve got nothing against foreign managers, they are very nice people. Apart from Arsene Wenger.”
What’s a normal supporter
A very normal gay, a good gay. Like André Santos said. 😁
Nothing to be embarrassed about Cala…We the fans love you a lot. Scoring your first great goal like that against City right there in their background calls for massive celebrations…But I wasn’t happy Arteta didn’t want to hug him much. Next time Cala, go and hug the Arsenal fans, they will really love that…
I know man city are pricks, but I can’t believe they got that repugnant thief Thomas edison to play in goal for them
Yeah. Whatta cunt he is.
I LOVE this celebration. I felt the exact same way, did not see it coming and I was just as blank and full of joy. This guy is amazing.
I Love him. So so much.
This made me break my ribs. Cala is quickly becoming a cult hero, only a few games into his gunner’s career. I did think it was wonderfully cringe, his celebration, and I love it. Long live Cala!
Why do these foolish stories get any traction? This was one of the greatest Arsenal goals i’ve seen in a long time. Califiori has nothing to be embarrassed about, and Arteta loved it just as much as we all did.
You can see that Arteta’s undershirts snap around between his legs like a baby’s onesie. Very clever, no longer needs to adjust his top every time he raises his arms. It’s held in place by his grundle, now that’s a strategy we can all get behind.
The purity of footballing joy
Ricky your goal is a top-notch keep the celebration going on ❤️
More of those embarrassing moments, son.😀
Legend. Stay healthy and awesome for years to come!