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.
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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