Ball boy

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Ball boy at a soccer game
Ball girl playing tennis in the pose of the ball
Older ball boys are also allowed at the US Open

Ball boys or ball girls are (usually teenagers) helpers in competitions of different ball sports, whose task it is to collect a game ball that is no longer in play and to return it to the players or to keep reserve balls ready to shorten interruptions in the game.

Areas of application

In sports where multiple balls are provided so that the game can continue quickly, ball boys and girls are used to bring a ball back into play as quickly as possible. That is why they are regularly used in soccer , tennis , basketball , volleyball or even cricket , baseball and American football .

tennis

Ball boys and girls are indispensable helpers in tennis tournaments and are even allowed to enter the field if the game is interrupted . Usually children and adolescents are used, who rotate like the line judges after certain periods of use. Collection areas, movements, ball distribution, behavior and gestures towards the players are subject to fixed rules. Ball boys and girls are usually positioned in the court corners and on the net. In addition to distributing the ball, they are also used to hand towels to the players between rallies.

Ball boys were first used in 1920 at Wimbledon . Girls have also been employed in this role since 1977.

Soccer

Although ball boys are very rarely noticed in football, as they are only allowed to enter the field in exceptional cases, they are occasionally the focus of attention:

  • In the English League Cup semi-final match between Swansea City and Chelsea on January 23, 2013, when the score was 0-0 in the 79th minute, a ball boy deliberately slowed the game by holding the ball under his body behind the goal. When Chelsea player Eden Hazard tried to snatch the ball from him, his kick also hit the ball boy, who rolled over on the floor in pain. Hazard saw the red card and was also suspended for three games. It was later revealed that the ball boy had planned ahead of the game to delay the game in order to provoke the Chelsea players.
  • At the 2012 European Championship , the 21st minute of the game between the Netherlands and Germany was shown on television as Germany's national coach Jogi Löw kicked the ball away from a ball boy. It later turned out that the scene was recorded before the game and then played during the game, which attracted a lot of media coverage.
  • On the 19th matchday of the 2014/15 Bundesliga season , a ball boy was insulted by Wolfsburg player Kevin De Bruyne during the game Eintracht Frankfurt against VfL Wolfsburg with the words "Give me the ball, you motherfucker". For this, De Bruyne received a fine of 20,000 euros from the DFB.

Web links

Wiktionary: Ball boy  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Ball boys and girls  collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ball Boys & Ball Girls . English. Online at Wimbledon.com. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  2. ↑ Ball boy steals the show from Swansea , kicker.de. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
  3. ↑ Florian Haupt: Kicked ball boy saw himself on a mission . welt.de from January 24, 2013. Accessed July 2, 2013.
  4. ↑ TV error: Löw annoyed the ball boys even before the game . spiegel.de from June 15, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
  5. ↑ ZDF complains to Uefa about wrong images , focus.de from June 16, 2012. Accessed July 2, 2013.
  6. ↑ De Bruyne offends Balljungen , on spiegel.de, accessed on February 9, 2015.
  7. ↑ 20,000 € fine for De Bruyne after insulting ball boys , on spiegel.de, accessed on February 9, 2015.