Nicolas Anelka has learned his lesson and will now celebrate his goals in a different way. The French striker has agreed to stop performing the “quenelle” gesture following a request from his English club, West Bromwich, which is taking the matter seriously.
In a press release, the club stated, “The club understands that this way of celebrating goals could have caused harm and asked Nicolas to no longer act in this way.” The statement on the WBA website specifies that “Nicolas (Anelka) immediately agreed to adhere to this request.”
Scoring his first two goals of the season on Saturday, the 34-year-old striker celebrated his first achievement with the controversial “quenelle” gesture, popularized by the comedian-polemicist Dieudonné and considered by some to be anti-Semitic. Initially sparking a lively controversy, the player later denied any political or religious connotation, explaining that it was an “anti-system” gesture.
