Touching tribute: Ousmane Dembele paid tribute to Diogo Jota with his goal celebration in the Club World Cup
Having netted a 96th-minute effort to bury Bayern’s hopes of a late come back in Saturday’s blockbuster quarter-final, Dembele wheeled away in celebration before being mobbed by his teammates and the on-rushing PSG substitutes’ bench.
But before play resumed, the Frenchman made a point of dedicating his goal to Jota, the Liverpool forward who died alongside his brother and fellow Portuguese footballer, Andre Silva, in a car accident in Spain.
Dembele did so by copying Jota’s iconic Fifa-linked celebration, sitting cross-legged on the turf and pretending to hold a video game controller.
Taking place just hours after the brothers’ family and former teammates gathered at their funeral, the move was picked up on across social media, with Dembele drawing widespread praise for his thoughtful gesture.
Meanwhile, the Parisians’ captain, Marquinhos, suggested to reporters after full-time that Dembele’s celebration was also intended to “cheer up” PSG’s Portuguese players, some of whom - the likes of Vitinha, Joao Neves and Nuno Mendes - were Jota’s international teammates.
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"It was very difficult to hear the news,” the Brazilian centre-back said of Thursday’s tragic incident. “We have got Portuguese players in the dressing room and they were with him only a few weeks ago playing in the Nations League, so we wanted to cheer them up.