Ross County striker Alex Schalk has apologized to Celtic fans for his dive which helped his team snatch a 2-2 draw against the Bhoys last weekend.
The Dutch international dived in the 89th minute of the match even though Celtic defender Erik Sviatchenko made no contact whatsoever with him and a penalty was awarded in his team’s favor.
Liam Boyce then stepped up and converted the resulting penalty to earn his team a valuable point against the Champions.
As a result of his actions, the 24-year-old has been punished with a two match ban by the Scottish Football Association for simulation.
He has since issued an apology to Celtic fans saying, “I really want to apologise, obviously to the referee, to Celtic and to the fans. I’ve seen it back and it’s stupid. I don’t know what I was thinking. There was no contact and I just want to say sorry, really. It will never happen again.”
Diving is a common phenomenon in professional football and for the vast majority of cases, players do not apologize. Though what Schalk did was unprofessional, it was a good gesture of him to issue an apology.
