‘Super Mario’ cam: Balotelli’s selfie and the art of the social media celebration

Mario Balotelli shocked fans by celebrating a goal with a live Instagram video when helping Marseille to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Saint-Etienne on Sunday evening, but does this open the door for more social media celebrations in football?

The answer is, in all likelihood, that this is the just the beginning.

In fact, Italian football legend Francesco Totti actually began the trend of ‘selfie celebrations’ in 2015 when shooting a photo with fans after scoring for Roma against Lazio in one of the many instalments of the Derby della Capitale.

However, since then the selfie celebration has gone relatively unused in football and it must be said, Balotelli’s innovative idea is the perfect showcase of team camaraderie, as has long-been a staple of team goal-celebrations.

Balotelli’s extension of Totti’s selfie to actually go live on the immensely-popular Instagram platform also increased the chance of fan engagement with the Marseille side and opened the door for further social stunts to come.

Imagine several of the memorable goal celebrations from recent years dubbed to allow for social media engagement, such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s old trope of donning a Spiderman mask when scoring at former clubs Borussia Dortmund and Saint-Etienne (something he has also voiced interest in doing for his current club, Arsenal). The Gabonese striker could pull on the mask whist shooting this in Boomerang-style format on Instagram with the fans going wild in the background.

Alternatively, iconic moments such as Steven Gerrard’s camera-kiss or Samuel Eto’o’s ‘bad back/old man’ celebration could be filmed by team-mates on platforms such as Snapchat, before adding a slow motion filter to increase the offering to fans.

Looking ahead to future celebrations, we have already seen several famous up-and-coming footballers such as Dele Alli and Paulo Dybala incorporate trademark celebrations across social media to maximise impact, with Alli’s infamous ‘Dele Alli challenge’ even going viral at the start of this season.

It looks like Balotelli’s celebration has opened the door for future in-game social media ventures for footballers, although that is certainly no bad thing. In fact, this could be the latest sporting trend to further immerse fans into the sporting action, as soon as it unfolds.

Featured image: “Balotelli Svogliato e Fuori Forma: Per C” (CC BY 2.0) by NazionaleCalcio