Republic of Ireland and Swansea striker Michael Obafemi continued his incredible goal scoring run but may have risked issues with local police after he performed the controversial ‘swim away’ celebration in front of Cardiff fans today.
Obafemi had put Swansea ahead in the South Wales derby after six minutes, before running over to the home fans and doing a swimming gesture.
The ‘swim away’ celebration refers to an incident in 1988 where a group of Swansea hooligans allegedly chased a group of Cardiff hooligans into the sea in Swansea. To mock the ‘embarrassment’ of the occasion, Swansea fans have adopted the antagonistic celebration ever since.
Obafemi scores for Swansea away to Cardiff and does the 'swim away' celebration. Oh wowhttps://t.co/BqOVHhaRvH
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) April 2, 2022
In the last South Wales derby, Swansea manager Russell Martin and player Jamie Paterson both did the gesture, and was one of the reasons Cardiff City contacted the police after a number of incidents.
In the pre-match conference for today’s game, Martin was asked whether he would perform the celebration again.
"I don’t think I appreciated the backlash. Maybe everyone got carried away with the emotion of it. It was a brilliant afternoon in terms of the performance and atmosphere. Our away fans, the atmosphere they’ll create will be different. We’ll see how the game goes. I think it’ll be very different this time."
Maybe Martin was luring everyone into a false sense of security, or maybe Obafemi has disobeyed order or got carried away in the moment.
It clearly did not affect the striker's form as Obafemi has since scored a second goal to make it 4-0 to the away side, after goals from Ben Cabango and Hannes Wolf.
Obafemi has guaranteed himself club icon status after today's heroics, with many Swans fans on twitter requesting a statue to be built in his honour.
— Swansea City AFC (@SwansOfficial) April 2, 2022
As it stands, the result puts 16th place Swansea five points ahead of 17th place Cardiff in the Championship, with a game in hand for Swansea.
Obafemi has now scored six goals in his last six games as he continues his quest to get back into the international fold.
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