Graeme Souness leads Galatasaray title celebrations by repeating stunt that led to death threats

Graeme Souness was invited out on to the Galatasaray pitch ahead of their Istanbul derby clash against Fenerbache as he decided to conduct his iconic flag celebration

Graeme Souness recreated his iconic flag celebration as former club Galatasaray won the Istanbul derby on Sunday evening - 27 years since receiving death threats for the same action.

Souness, 70, announced he would be leaving Sky Sports back in April following Liverpool's 4-3 win over Tottenham. However, instead of having some time away from the game, the Scot was present at Galatasaray's routine 3-0 victory against Fenerbache.

A brace from Nicolo Zaniolo and Mauro Icardi's strike secured all three points for Galatasaray as the Super Lig champions toased another famous success. Galatasaray were confirmed as league winners last week and further extended the lead on second-place Fenerbache to eight points with one game remaining.

But before the game, Souness was invited out and relieved his iconic flag celebration that nearly sparked a riot. In 1996, Souness planted a Galatasaray flag in the middle of the Fenerbache pitch. Souness later explained that he decided to do in revenge to a Fenerbache executive who had mocked him shortly after he had undergone surgery.

"One of their [Fenerbahce's] vice-presidents had said 'what are Galatasaray doing signing a cripple?', he was referring to the open-heart surgery I had," Souness recalled to Sky Sports.

"So we play them nine months later in the cup final, a two-legged cup final - we won the first game in our stadium 1-0, lose the second game 1-0 after ninety minutes. It goes to extra time, Dean Saunders - a really good player and great striker of the ball, before he's actually made contact with it I am up off my seat knowing he's going to score.

"We win the trophy and after the game, all of our players ran down to one end where our supporters were and that great big flag was handed over. All the players took turns to wave it and then it's my turn, I give it a few waves and then turned to hand it to someone."

As for Souness, on May 22, he confirmed he would swim the English channel for the charity DEBRA, which supports people living with Epidemolysis Bullosa. When revealing why he was completing such a task, Souness told BBC Breakfast: "It's the most horrendous disease. If you're inflicted by it you must wake up every morning and say why me. It's a desperate situation."

The ex-Anfield ace struggled to fight back tears as he continued to discuss the illness and those impacted by it. "And then the parents have to deal with that. And that's why we're doing this," he said. The BBC aired a moving segment on Souness' story and covered how a meeting with a 14-year-old girl back in 2019 who was suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa inspired him to take on this mammoth challenge.

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