Former Manchester City striker Benjani Mwaruwari believes the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee has ruined the fun behind the goal celebrations.
The Zimbabwean made himself a cult hero through his unique celebration by pointing to fans three times before moving his arm across.
Speaking on Ladbrokes Fanzone, as cited by English outlet, The Daily Star, Benjani expressed his concerns and revealed that players are now avoiding choreographed celebrations as they worry that their goals will be chalked off after a VAR review.
He said: “I feel like VAR has ruined goal celebrations… no one wants to commit to a proper celebration because you never know whether they’re going to pull it back and disallow the goal for something that happened in the build-up.
“Which is a shame, because we’re missing out on great celebrations!”
The former Warriors captain also explained what inspired his iconic celebration and how former Nigeria international Nwankwo Kanu pushed for it during their time together at Portsmouth.
He said: “I actually have Britain’s Got Talent to thank for my celebration! The first time I did it was at the start of the season in 2007, in our opening game against Derby County.
“Me and Nwankwo Kanu had been watching Britain’s Got Talent and one guy was celebrating after his performance, but he didn’t know how to express himself in English, and so he went to the audience and just pointed at them. Kanu said ‘Benji, that’s a great celebration, there!’ And so we agreed that the first one of us to score would do it! Whoever scored first between us, owned the celebration!”
Benjani added: “I scored on the first day against Derby, and so I did it. Then, in our second game of the season, at home to Man United, I scored again – if you watch my celebration, Kanu follows me immediately, because he knew what I was about to do! It was planned between us, and then it just continued and continued and continued… I took it with me!”
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