Nicolas Jackson has a signature goal celebration. He stares down the TV camera, holds his thumb out horizontally, slowly turns it upwards, then snaps it down. He finishes with a "head-off gesture" which, in other leagues, as Paris Brunner's case in Monaco shows, can even lead to a lengthy suspension.
The Premier League takes a different view, and Jackson is back there this season. In the summer of 2025, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca saw no reason to keep the forward, who eventually joined Bayern Munich on loan as Harry Kane's back-up.
At Bayern, Jackson did a respectable job, scoring 11 goals and providing four assists in 34 competitive appearances. But Bayern did not see enough to justify a permanent move at the stipulated €65 million fee. Understandably so: Jackson had not made a case for himself as the long-term successor to Harry Kane, who remains untouchable for now.
Back at Chelsea, Jackson still had no future at Stamford Bridge, but the club refused to lower their asking price. At the end of August, Aston Villa finally made their move. With Ollie Watkins gone, the Birmingham club urgently needed a replacement in the centre of attack. Villa paid €55 million for Jackson, with performance-related bonuses potentially taking the fee to €75 million.
How have Aston Villa and Nicolas Jackson started the season?
Villa sit fifth from bottom in the Premier League, but Jackson has made an impressive start individually. He has scored five goals in eight competitive appearances for his new club, two of them in this week's convincing 6-0 Champions League win over Fenerbahce. He brought out his distinctive celebration again, too, but has yet to explain it, prompting speculation online. The most obvious explanation is a "gladiator" gesture: the lowered thumb and the cut across the throat call for the defeated fighter's death. It may not be tasteful, but it stands out.
IMAGOHow Jackson celebrates won't bother Villa fans if he keeps scoring. He and Leon Goretzka are two of their great hopes. After his move from Bayern Munich, Goretzka made his season debut against Fener following a lengthy spell out injured. Jackson, meanwhile, has reunited with his favourite manager at last year's Europa League winners. He worked with Unai Emery at Villarreal years ago and won the Europa League under him. "Playing for this manager is very important," he has now said of Emery.
Emery keeps picking Jackson in attack, partly because the summer's major overhaul left him short of high-quality alternatives. The 25-year-old Senegalese still has doubters to win over. "If he's such a good player, why didn't he make it at Chelsea?" former Villa scout Bryan King asked this week in Football Insider.
Villa fans don't want the answer as long as Jackson keeps scoring and celebrating in his distinctive, if not particularly tasteful, way.