Dries Mertens is having a fantastic year, and now he can check “perform heartwarming celebration off of his list.” The Belgian winger is currently one of the best attackers in Italy, and while his goal-scoring record (8 in 22 across all competitions) might not not convince you of this, he has played a large roll in putting Napoli at the top of Serie A.
He and his teammates have scored a league leading 45 goals so far. That’s 6 more than the second leading scoring team, Fiorentina, and firmly establishes Napoli as the most potent attack in Italy.
Napoli continued that reputation with a 4-2 win over 17th place Sampdoria, in which Mertens scored this beauty of a goal with his only shot on the day.
But more important that the goal is Mertens’ celebration. After a quick fist bump to the crowd, Mertens went straight over to Napoli’s bench to embrace teammate and England U21 international Nathaniel Chalobah, whose mother had recently passed away.
Photo: YouTube
It is heartening to see that Mertens’ teammates followed his lead and engulfed Chalobah in a mosh pit of hugs and Napoli red away jerseys.
If only every goal had a heartwarming celebration to go with it.
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