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Watch: Greek Athlete Under Fire for Apparent Nazi Salute (Update: Given Lifetime Ban)

Mar. 16, 2013 8:59pm Erica Ritz

Greek Soccer Player Giorgos Katidis Gives Nazi Salute After Scoring Winning Goal

AEK Athens midfielder Giorgos Katidis raises his hand in a Nazi style salute, as his teammate Roger Guerreiro looks on, as he celebrates scoring the winning goal in a Greek league game against Veria in Athens’ Olympic Stadium, Saturday, March 16, 2013. (Photo: AP)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek soccer player Giorgos Katidis has been banned from his national team for life after giving a Nazi salute while celebrating a goal in the topflight league.

Greece’s soccer federation said Sunday in a statement that the AEK Athens midfielder’s gesture “is a deep insult to all victims of Nazi brutality.”

The 20-year-old Katidis gave a Nazi salute after scoring the go-ahead goal Saturday in AEK’s 2-1 victory over Veria in the Greek league. He pleaded ignorance of the meaning of his gesture – right arm extended and hand straightened. He claimed on his Twitter account that he detests fascism.

AEK and the Greek league are considering separate sanctions. AEK fans have demanded Katidis’ dismissal from the team.

Katidis has played for Greek national junior teams but not the senior side.

Original post below:

(TheBlaze/AP) — AEK Athens midfielder Giorgos Katidis has earned rebukes from politicians, fellow athletes and fans after giving an apparent Nazi salute in celebration of a goal he scored in the Greek league.

Pictures show the man raising his right arm in the well-known salute after scoring the go-ahead goal in the 84th minute over visiting Veria on Saturday.

In one photo, Katidis’ Brazilian-born teammate Roger Guerreiro looks at him with an expression of astonishment.

Moreover, video shows that as he’s tackled by enthusiastic teammates Katidis does everything he can to keep his arm up — it’s not just an unfortunate screen shot.

Here’s the telling video, via the Huffington Post:

Ο χαιρετισμός του Γιώργου Κατίδη! by kokoretsi

Struggling with extreme poverty and unemployment issues, the neo-Nazi “Golden Dawn” party has been gaining traction in Greece in recent years. Their members are sometimes associated with abusing women and immigrants.

But 20-year-old Katidis has pleaded ignorance of the meaning of his gesture. On his Twitter account, he even claimed that he detests fascism.

His German coach Ewald Lienen corroborated the story, saying the player doesn’t have an “idea about politics.”

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Comments (101)

betterpart
Posted on March 17, 2013 at 3:40am
All you folks who believe the guy “didn’t mean anything by it”: How do you know he didn’t? An athlete like him who travels in international sports circles and is exposed to various rituals and traditions can’t bleat that he “didn’t know”.

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- AbeBird
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 4:18am
  He has a low self-esteem low. The problem that he can’t understand his own situation.
  
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midnightvelvet
Posted on March 17, 2013 at 1:28am
Funny…if he had flipped everybody the bird and grabbed his crotch, this probably wouldn’t even be a story.

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- Infected
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 1:54am
  Funny… he has a black mans album title tattooed on his abbs
  “get rich or die trying”
  
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- geeman
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 2:58pm
  He should have shouted Death to AMERICA at the same time,they would have carried him out on their shoulders as a hero.So remember facists and commies, when you can’t control your hate,it’s still P.C to hate america.Even if you are the president!
  
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- XCitizen
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 4:53pm
  yeah only in AMERICA! by Obama’s home boys
  
  Report this comment
New.World.Fastfood.Order
Posted on March 17, 2013 at 1:11am
He’s just holding his hand up. Why are people worried about such trivial things when millions of children are murdered in abortions each year?

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- Mr.buff1959
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 2:00am
  Thank you.
  
  Report this comment
- nzkiwi
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 4:43am
  This may be trivial in itself, but what it inevitably eads to is not.
  
  Mr Buff’s comment may then be “Why are we worried about the abortion issue when our world is burning from one end to the other”…
  
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- nzkiwi
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 5:08am
  * inevitably LEADS to is not.
  
  Sorry…
  
  Report this comment
- piper60
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 8:44am
  Not just holding his arm up. I agree about the abortions, though.
  
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Secret Squirrel
Posted on March 17, 2013 at 12:46am
Anybody with that many tattoos is stupid .
Just write him off as an idiot.

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- The_Cabrito_Goat
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 1:16pm
  He looks like a garden variety skinhead. Tedious
  
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Kiba
Posted on March 17, 2013 at 12:22am
I don’t care what that guy or anyother greek-geek does. Did Hitler kill Greeks too? I think people make to big a deal over just some dude acting stupid. Reading to far into things, he probably didn’t mean anything.

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welovetheUSA
Posted on March 17, 2013 at 12:08am
I cant see were its a offensive move of his arm, big to do over nothing.

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Jake Dog2
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 11:49pm
You can’t tell me he didn’t know what he was doing. No one is that sheltered and plays sports around the world.

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- TotallyNotATroll
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 12:00am
  Wow, so the guy used a roman or greek salute, o wait, does no one seem to have a clue that the salute used by the nazi’s is much older than the nazi party. What a big deal to make about nothing.
  
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- TotallyNotATroll
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 12:04am
  I’ll throw a small complaint onto the fire here too, as I won’t come back to read your responses anyways: The nazi party borrowed the swastika, which for thousands of years was used as a symbol in pagan europe as representing the sun, in fact american indians also used the swastika, but now it is tainted by Hitler and can’t be used simply because too many idiots automatically associate it with the Nazis. I have always wondered: Had the Nazi party instead used a cross, would christians have given up that symbol?
  
  Report this comment
Jake Dog2
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 11:46pm
@ The _Jerk
I see you are back to living up to your name.

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JohnofOregon
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 11:21pm
Interesting. This is in the cradle of civilized government? What happened to freedom of speech or expression.

That’s right, it’s Europe, they don’t have it. These are the faux freedom believers.

I am surprised they had time to notice with their bank accounts being drained.

I personally do not approve of this but I understand freedom and I also love voltaire’s view of this.

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Southernsoul
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 11:04pm
I guess the Nazi army over-running the country in less than a month during WWII wasn’t enough occupation for them. Or is it a matter of not learning real history, so you don’t really know what your talking about?

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Yakov-Yurovsky
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 11:03pm
Ya, this is horrible! I really wished he raised his fist in triumph because raising your fist is cool nowadays! Instead he chose the salute of the free man. Free from interest slavery that is! lol

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firearm
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 10:52pm
Hope he was wearing deodorant!

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- Eastinfection
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 7:48am
  unlikely.
  
  Report this comment
SilentReader
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 10:52pm
It’s difficult to imagine that he would be ignorant about the Nazi salute! Of course, in Croatia, the puppet state created by the Nazis during WWII, they are still doing it, and they know exactly what it means. In fact, the Croatian rock star, Marko Perkovic Thompson, who added the last name of Thompson to his real name after the Thompson machine gun that the Ustashi (Muslim & Croat) Nazis used to murder the Christian Serbs during WWII, still uses the Nazi salute at his rock concerts!

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demsrtraitors
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 10:51pm
Big Deal. look at the democrat party and their leader today who are using NAZI tactics. Where is the outrage ?

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circleDwagons
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 10:51pm
Watched the video several times. I do not get it. I do not understand why they have to take there shirts off. As far as the “salute” it looks like he is pointing out toward the growd. I’m with JERK what’s the big deal. More of the zero tolerance nonsense.

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whatthecrazy
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 10:25pm
Thats about right,goodlooking and stupid.Just kidding, he may not be goodlooking to some.

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skippy6
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 10:13pm
den Bielski Brüdern, we won’t let it happen again……..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrA-i6kOdc

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universalphilos
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 10:05pm
A prophecy about the growth of the Nazi party, January 20, 1978: “Those of the Black September or Palestinian Organization, which has coincided themselves with what you once knew as the Nazi Party, and has financed terrorism throughout the land, these properties and these people carry the mark of the Beast and are that that is in preparation for the coming — as you would say, in the preparation of the Anti-Christ and his reign upon the Earth. The half times are over. Now it shall be one or the other – those who should follow the Anti-Christ, or those who should prepare the way and follow the Christ.
God has seen upon your Earth all these things. And none of these things are new; they are all things we have told you before.”
http://www.angelfire.com/in4/aup_messiah/1978January20.audio.html

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Comrade_Bob
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:56pm
As a Logical observer can deduce that this movement is acting in the best interest of Greek children, unlike the current power structure, it can be predicted that it will continue to grow.

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Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:55pm
That used to be the way we did the ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ before we added “Under God.”
He is 20 years old. How many American 20 year olds know any other History than “The US is Worse Than Stalin?”
Yeah. I think he was just ignorant of the salute. I will take him at his word.

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skippy6
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:45pm
Was für ein Arschloch!!!! he knows….

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:53pm
  Perhaps. But then, so is the author of this story.
- Fubared
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 12:00pm
  He was just waving hi to ah fan, ah jerk.
  
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- ofass
  Posted on March 17, 2013 at 6:43pm
  Hey Jerky, I did not know they let you out of Gaza to play soccer…
  
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AUsername
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:41pm
its a cool looking gesture that many others have used.

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- Fubared
  Posted on March 18, 2013 at 9:14am
  A User how do you hold a joint like that?
  
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TJexcite
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:36pm
Something like the kids that wear a Che shirt. They have no idea just how much of a murder he was but it is cool. Well in Greece it is cool to be a Nazi and well….just forget about the history of Nazism the symbols are cool.

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gyro
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:35pm
The yellow pill Jerk the yellow pill
====
complely off topic AEK Athens is not that good a team dont panic

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on March 16, 2013 at 9:14pm
His grandparents must have told him such wonderful stories of the Nazi occupation during WWII. Sort of like Occupy Wall Street, and really cool.
Dumbass!

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