4 Reasons Why Soccer Players Grab The Ball After Scoring

Soccer players like to celebrate in many ways after scoring a goal, and one of those ways is by grabbing the ball.

Now its not as extravagant as doing a few cartwheels or doing a rehearsed in training celebration.

However, it is still a very common response for a footballer after finding the net.

You may have seen it happen many times in soccer, but why exactly do so many players do it.

In this post, I take you through 4 reasons why soccer players grab the ball after scoring.

Table of Contents

1. Chasing A Result

The most common reason players do this is to get the ball back in play because they are chasing a result.

If a team is a couple of goals down, for instance, 2-0 or 3-1 down, and they pull a goal back.

They will want to waste as little time as possible with the clock still running down.

They know that time is limited and that to get anything for their efforts from the game, they must score again.

So if a goal is scored to make it game on, the first thing a player will do is go and retrieve the ball and take it to the semi-circle.

As this will ensure that

Saying that, though, if a team is losing but then manages to score a goal late to tie the game.

They might celebrate as if they have won because it will feel like they have stolen a point.

So while they have originally wanted to win the game, considering the circumstance, they may feel grateful for snatching a point in a game where they could have easily got nothing.

In this situation, they may celebrate with teammates instead of going to retrieve the ball to win the game.

A good example was a 2022 World Cup qualifier where Portugal was down 1 nil in the 89th minute on home soil.

The home team, who were big favourites to win comfortably, found themselves desperately trying to get something from the game.

When Ronaldo scored in the 89th minute, the game changed.

With the players closest to the goal surging towards the ball to quickly retrieve the ball, as they knew there was plenty of time for a winner.

So after this goal went in, all Portugals players ran back to their own half, as you can see in the video above, so that the referee could restart the game quickly.

This was to leave themselves as much time to get the winner, and in this example, it worked out perfectly.

As in the dying seconds, Ronaldo then scored again to get Portugal the win.

2. To Celebrate With The Ball

Not every time when a player grabs the ball is because their team is in a desperate situation of chasing a result.

Sometimes they go to the ball, simply because they want to perform a celebration that involves it.

The most common celebration which involves the ball is putting it under the shirt.

A lot of footballers have used this and have this as their signature celebration.

Why they do this is with a ball under the shirt, it shows pregnancy, and therefore the celebration can be dedicated to a wife or kids.

Another reason for doing this celebration is to imply that scoring the goal was too easy.

This is why some players will also put their thumb in their mouth like a child.

Famous footballers who are known for doing this include Bruno Fernandes, Mesut Ozil and Italian legend Francesco Totti.

3. Not In A Position To Celebrate

Now this one is similar to reason one; however, it is a little different.

This reason applies to teams that are losing and know that they are likely to lose the game despite scoring.

Due to the other team being too many goals ahead.

So what a player will do is pick up the ball, taking it to the halfway line.

Instead of doing a normal celebration with teammates.

Unlike in the NFL, where scoring a touchdown is always a cause for celebration.

If a soccer team is losing, they will hardly ever celebrate it.

As there is nothing more embarrassing than doing some celebration when you are 5 nil down.

So instead, they will either walk back to their own half to resume the game.

Or pick up the ball, then take it to the halfway line.

4. To Waste Time

Its not always the scoring team who rush to the ball after scoring.

As sometimes, it can be the defending team who go to get it to stop the attackers from getting it.

This could be due to the result being fragile and them not wanting to concede further.

Like in the example above with Portugal, the Republic of Ireland defended hard for most of that game.

Only to suffer an equaliser with only minutes on the clock.

If you go to (3:48) in the video, you will notice how the defender sees the attackers coming to get the ball and boots it as hard as he could.

While this could have just been frustration, I am sure he knew there was a chance they could end up losing the game.

So kicking the ball would stop the players from collecting the ball efficiently to restart the ball.

The only problem is that when players do this, it can get nasty, and fights can occur.

As with the team chasing the lead desperate to restart play, they will get frustrated in a player wastes time.

Whether that be holding on to the ball or booting it away like above.

If this happens, the referee will tend to step in, demanding that the conceding team give the ball back.

Now, if they don’t comply, I have seen on many occasions players get yellow cards for therefore delaying the restart of the match.

Conclusion

Due to the nature of soccer and how the time carries on going, retrieving the ball becomes quite important.

Especially if there isn’t much time to go in the game, and a team needs to score again to get a result in the game.

So, as a result, as you can see above, you have 4 reasons why a soccer player will grab the ball after scoring.

Do you think there is any reason why they do this?

Or maybe you have some more questions?

Whatever it may be, do make sure them in the comments section below!

Now, if you are starting to get more into soccer and love learning about it, then I recommend checking out some of these other posts I have done below: