West Ham’s Tomas Soucek says he did not do his trademark goal celebration against Leicester City out of respect for the club’s former owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
Soucek normally celebrates scoring with a spinning helicopter celebration, but he chose not to do that when he scored against the Foxes in the Premier League on Thursday night.
Soucek opened the scoring midway through the first half at the London Stadium and speaking after the final whistle, after a 2-0 defeat for Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side, he explained the reason he didn't do his spinning celebration.
“I didn’t think my normal helicopter celebration was the right thing to do because of what happened to the Leicester owner (Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha). I wanted to show respect to our opponents,” he said.
Khun Vichai was one of five people tragically killed in a helicopter crash outside the King Power Stadium in 2018.
A Jannik Vestergaard own goal before half-time condemned City to another league defeat which leaves them still in 19th place in the table with 11 matches left to play.
