Nicolas Anelka May Have Celebrated Goal With A Nazi Salute

After Anelka scored this goal for West Bromwich, he took his left hand to his right bicep in a gesture that is called " La Quenelle," named after the word for "an elongated creamed fish dumpling." Apparently, an "anti-establishment" comedian in France named Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala invented the gesture, which is essentially the Nazi salute inversed. It is mired in controversy.

Dieudonné, who's been fined by the French government for hate speech, claims it is not anti-Semitic, just anti-Zionist.

After Jewish groups complained to the French government about Dieudonné's actions, France's Interior Minister Manuel Valls strongly criticised M'Bala M'Bala - who was once fined for describing Holocaust remembrance as "memorial pornography".

The quenelle is becoming the subject of a sick viral craze across the Channel, with youths trying to perform the sign in the most offensive place possible before uploading pictures and videos to social media.

Elsewhere, it's been written that there is a dispute as to the meaning, but use of the gesture was "cretinous at best."

This gesture, 'la quenelle', was invented by a comedian named Dieudonne, supposedly as an 'anti-establishment' statement. But it can also be read as an inversion of the Nazi salute, and has been the subject of an official complaint by anti-racist organizations.

So, at the very least, this was probably not a smart thing to do in front of a bunch of cameras. But it's not the first time he's done it, either.

Nicolas Anelka celebrates scoring against West Ham with controversial gesture named the quenelle [Mirror]