Cody Gakpo is still getting used to life at Liverpool and trying his best to find the best possible role in the team amid the crazy competition in the frontline. He definitely improved his chances of getting more game-time in his side’s 3-1 win over Leicester City in the Carabao Cup third-round clash, but his weird celebration is the thing that really got people talking.
The Reds were helped by a Dutch connection to help score the equalizer after going a goal down in the game. New midfielder Ryan Gravenberch tricked the Leicester players with some nice movement before feeding the ball to Gakpo in the box. The Dutch forward made no mistake in brilliantly slotting the ball into the back of the net.
After the goal, Gravenberch and Gakpo celebrated passionately in front of a buzzing Anfield crowd. The midfielder jumped atop of his national team colleague before Gakpo celebrated by making a weird gesture at the crowd.
It looked like Gakpo used two of his fingers and made a ‘tiny’ sign. This definitely weirded out a lot of the viewers, who had no clue whatsoever behind the forward’s weird gesture and what exactly he meant by it.
The Dutchman didn’t really give any kind of an explanation over his celebration after the game and has left the fans to start theorizing over what it actually might’ve meant. If not anything else, then the celebration has at least triggered a number of memes that have been created by fans mocking it.
This is not even the first time that Gakpo has been part of a weird goal celebration for Liverpool since joining the club earlier this year. During their remarkable 7-0 win over Manchester United in March, the Dutch forward had a bizarre celebration with teammate Darwin Nunez. He was seen being told to sniff the Uruguayan forward’s armpit before hugging him for his goal.
However, there might be a more reasonable answer to Gakpo doing that kind of weird celebration after his goal against Leicester. It actually appears that he might have been paying homage to the person who had assisted his goal, which is Gravenberch.
Fans have unearthed Gravenberch doing this celebration during his time at Bayern Munich in a pre-match promo too. It appears that the midfielder might have actually taught his national teammate about this and inspired him to pull it off after their combination against the Foxes.
While Gakpo has not yet revealed what that celebration was really all about, one can only believe that it was just paying ode to Gravenberch for assisting his second goal of the campaign.