Arsenal legend Ian Wright has praised Newcastle United striker Salomon Rondon for his moment of sportsmanship in his team’s win over Cardiff City on Saturday.
The Magpies ran out comfortable 3-0 winners over their relegation rivals at St James’ Park, but it was an under-the-radar moment in the game that caught Wright’s eye.
The Venezuelan attempted to swing a shot towards goal but accidentally hit Bluebirds man Joe Bennett flush in the head. Instead of playing on when the ball deflected back to him he kicked it harmlessly out of play so that the prone Bennett could receive treatment.
Wright was impressed: “Brilliant from Salomon Rondon,” he said on his personal Twitter account.
Brilliant from @salorondon23 ?????? https://t.co/ril9Y82xko
— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) January 20, 2019
OPINION
Wright is correct, this was a brilliant moment of sportsmanship from Rondon. He could have easily carried on playing and got another shot away but instead he put the ball out of play so that Bennett could receive treatment. That was nice to see from Rondon, and it’s not something that you witness very often in football. Paolo Di Canio famously did something similar years ago but there’s not been too many examples similar to this of late. He does seem to be a nice guy and it’s safe to say that Bennett and his Cardiff team mates appreciated the West Brom loanee’s gesture. Whether his own manager was happy with him or not is unknown, but it ultimately didn’t matter. Newcastle eased to victory and even if Rondon scored it wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome. But hopefully we saw more players following Rondon’s examples moving forward.