Charlton defender Naby Sarr curled in an impressive free-kick recently, and he celebrated in a manner inspired by Arsenal forward Alexandre Lacazette.
The 6’4″ centre-back probably surprised a few people by curling in a free-kick to equalise against AFC Wimbledon, but his celebration also caught a few people’s eyes. Sarr was clearly using Lacazette’s signature trumpet pose, and he explained afterwards that he’s close friends with the Arsenal man from their time together in France.
“We played together in Lyon’s first-team and even in the second team a bit – before he stepped up,” said Sarr (via LondonNewsOnline). “He is two years older than me, so when I started training with the first-team he was the one talking to me and giving me advice.
“That’s how we became close. I was very close at Lyon to Alexandre Lacazette and Samuel Umtiti, who is at Barcelona now, and that stayed the case even after I had moved to Portugal, he [Umtiti] went to Spain and he [Lacazette] came here [England].
“We often meet up. I go to his house to watch a game, or he comes to mine to watch a game – we’ll go and have a lunch or dinner.”
As for the celebration, Sarr admitted that it’s Lacazette’s, and tried to recall where it originated.
“It’s his trumpet celebration. It came from a long time ago, I think one of our friends was doing this. I just copied and said that next time I’ll have a go at it. I saw he retweeted the picture.
“He was the one who was talking to me the day I made my debut for Lyon – he gave me confidence.”
It’s nice to hear that Lacazette had such an impact on Sarr as a young player, and hopefully, the Frenchman is doing a similar thing with the academy stars at Arsenal.
Lacazette has had plenty of chances to use his celebration recently, with five goals in his last seven games. He’s not having such a great time right now though, having missed a couple of opportunities against Tottenham Hotspur and now preparing to miss out on Arsenal’s trip to Rennes through suspension.
Hopefully, he’ll be back in the team and scoring against Manchester United at the weekend. Perhaps he can even dedicate his celebration to Sarr.