It’s not unusual for ball boys to become a part of a soccer match, as we’ve highlighted plenty of times before. Who can forget when Eden Hazard kicked an unflinching Swansea lad? So we’re not really surprised by the actions of this Tottenham ball boy during a match against Watford on Wednesday at Wembley Stadium.
The incident occurred late in the match, with Spurs having rallied from a first-half deficit to take a 2-1 lead. Halfway through four minutes of stoppage time, Tottenham just needed to kill off the clock to become the only top-three club to record a win on Match Day 24 following slip-ups from Manchester City and Liverpool.
So this Tottenham ball boy did what just about any Spurs fan would have done in the same situation — he denied Watford the ball after it had gone out of bounds.
Isaac Success, looking to quickly restart play in search of an equalizer, ran up to the kid and slapped the ball out of his arms. Success doesn’t appear to make much, if any, contact with the ball boy, but referee Graham Scott thought it excessive and gave Success a yellow card.
This Tottenham ball boy did his best to take some time off the clock.
That wink at the end ... pic.twitter.com/82y2XV1NIa— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 30, 2019
You have to feel bad for Success being booked for trying to restart play. It’s not his fault the ball boy wasn’t doing his job, though perhaps the Nigeria international could have been a bit more diplomatic.
While you can’t really blame the Tottenham ball boy for trying to help his team, the kid definitely shouldn’t be allowed to roam the sidelines for Spurs anymore. Ball boys are there to help get the ball back into play as quickly as possible, and he should be banished to the stands for the remainder of his career as a boy.
He knew exactly what he was doing, as made evident by his wink afterword.
— Andrew Carter (@Andrew__Carter) January 30, 2019
Not that he was winking at many fans in the stands, as a mere 29,164 showed up at the 90,000-seat venue. (Though that was more than showed up for the USMNT-Panama match on Sunday.)
While the Tottenham ball boy was behaving poorly, he’s certainly not alone:
When ball boys attack pic.twitter.com/dWFpmwVf88
— The18 (@the18com) January 30, 2019
In the end, the Tottenham ball boy helped his team win 2-1, moving within seven points of league-leading Liverpool after its 1-1 draw with Leicester City.
The winner shockingly came from Fernando Llorente after this deplorable miss earlier in the match.
Im convinced llorente is the worst striker ever pic.twitter.com/GzUKWBC4Xy
— ً (@debrxyne) January 30, 2019
The18 Recommends For You
