I want Berisha to Roar if he scores against Brisbane

There is a disturbing trend in modern football – players are not celebrating when they score.

We’ve all seen it, a player standing stoically in an apologetic pose after slotting the ball into the goal of their former team, while their current teammates celebrate wildly around them.

It might be a minor issue, but I don’t like it and I want to see less of it. And I’m not alone. In a 2013 Guardian poll, 74 per cent of respondents said players should celebrate goals scored against their former clubs.

Beshart Berisha will line up against the Brisbane Roar on Friday night and has already suggested that he won’t know how to celebrate if he scores, as reported by Ben McKay on Thursday.

Before I continue, I should declare a conflict of interest. I follow Brisbane Roar and I desperately want them to secure their second victory of the campaign on Friday.

I don’t want Berisha to continue his fantastic early season goalscoring form, but if he does happen to add to his five goals this season, I want him to celebrate as wildly as if he scored against any other team.

Not celebrating against your former club has become something of the norm in the EPL recently.

While I don’t necessarily agree with Matthew Norman’s assertion in The Telegraph that it is a crime against football I do agree that by not celebrating, the goalscorer is diminishing the relevance of the act.

So why don’t I just respect the player’s decision to do whatever he likes when he scores?

Scoring a goal is both the aim of the game and the hardest thing to do. For me, it should illicit as primal a response by those on the field as it does in the stands.

For a start, I think it’s a bad look for the club the player currently plays for. ‘Why doesn’t he celebrate?’ fans might ask. Does scoring for his new team mean less than scoring for his previous team? Does that mean he doesn’t love us as much as them?

Supporting a football club already offers enough parallels with a complicated relationship than adding confusing feelings of jealousy to muddy the waters.

Players will often amass a huge number of clubs throughout their careers. Often it’s not by choice, they are simply dumped, told they ‘do not fit into the new manager’s plans’ and are jettisoned for new talent.

In this case, what better way to stick it to your former employers than to score against them, proving they were wrong to let you go, silencing the taunts from the fans who used to sing your name?

Granted, players shouldn’t look to Emannuel Adebayor for inspiration. His 100 yard sprint down the City of Manchester Stadium to incite Arsenal fans in 2009 nearly caused a riot. But scoring a goal, a fundamentally joyful occasion, should be celebrated with your teammates, current employers and your new fans.

A better example comes from another former Arsenal striker, Robin van Persie. When he scored for Manchester United against Arsenal in 2013, he slid on his knees across the Old Trafford turf, screaming in delight at scoring a big goal in a big game.

This doesn’t mean he hates Arsenal, hated his time there and wishes failure on his old friends. It is simply a reflection that he enjoys scoring goals, so justifiably celebrated as such with his new teammates in his new home.

Perhaps I am being too harsh. Certainly there are some occasions where it could be considered acceptable to show some restraint.

When Denis Law back-heeled a goal for Manchester City against United at Old Trafford in 1974, he thought he had relegated the club where he spent 11 successful years. His reaction, to immediately substitute himself and disappear down the tunnel was perhaps understandable – especially given all that United had gone through during his time there.

Also I should perhaps give some leeway to the subject of Matthew Norman’s ire in the article above – Frank Lampard. Earlier this season, he refused to celebrate a vital equalising goal for Manchester City against his former club Chelsea, where he spent 13 years, making 648 appearances and winning numerous trophies and honours.

Lampards refusal to celebrate was a mark of respect to the fans of a club he did not want to leave, whom he ended up playing against as a result of circumstance after being loaned out to City by his new parent club, New York City.

But even this rankles with me. Lampard scored a hugely important goal for City against a major rival for this year’s Premiership crown. If that doesn’t excite you as a player, then nothing will, and his desire and commitment for future honours away from Chelsea should be questioned.

So back to Berisha. The Albanian played three eventful seasons in Brisbane, making 83 appearances and scoring 50 goals. His influence on the pitch resulted in two A-League championships and a host of individual awards, while his off-field impact as a cult phenomenon among the Roar supporters is impossible to quantify.

The champions are missing him dearly this season, but as a player who has played for nine different clubs, I hope he views his time at Roar as an enjoyable, but ultimately historic chapter of his career.

Kevin Muscat (probably) won’t care if Berisha celebrates or not, and will only hope his marquee player will be pulling out all the stops to do his job in securing the three points for the Victory, and I’m sure he will.

But I want more than that. Should he score I want to see him to celebrate with as much gusto as when he used to score for Brisbane. It might hurt us Roar fans, but part of Berisha’s appeal was, and always will be, his sense of theatre and passion that he brings to the game.

Although if he doesn’t score and Brisbane kick on from their 4-0 win over Newcastle last Friday, I’d be even happier.