Ex-Celtic striker Patryk Klimala has issued an apology after he was accused of making a Nazi salute after he scored a goal in Israel.
The Polish star signed for Israeli club Hapoel Be'er Sheva on a free transfer in February - less than two years after the Hoops raked in £3.4 million for him.
He netted for the third game in a row as he helped Hapoel Be'er Sheva to a 2-1 win at Hapoel Jerusalem, but immediately raised one hand in celebration to his club's fans behind the goal.
But he was then the subject of a storm of criticism online from Israeli fans who understood his gesture to be a Nazi salute and attacked the 24-year-old.
It forced Klimala into making a statement as he tried to explain his celebrations.
Klimala said: "My gesture during the goal celebration was completely misunderstood.
"As a Pole who respects the history of both countries, I would never even think of doing the Nazi salute.
"While living in Poland, I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and I am fully aware of the importance of the history of Jewish heritage.
"After my goal, I just wanted to say hello to our fans. Other than that, it certainly wasn't anything else.
"Sorry if anyone took it the wrong way.
"Last but not least, this is a great opportunity to thank our fans again for all their support and I'm happy to say we've had another great win."
Klimala was at Celtic for 16 months after he cost them £3.5 million from Jagiellonia Bialystok three years ago and scored just three goals in 27 appearances before moving to the MLS with New York Red Bulls and then on to Israeli football.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here