Ball boy delayed Pedro Gallese, was expelled and then applauded at the Centennial

The Uruguayan team consummated its qualification for the Qatar 2022 World Cup with a 1-0 victory over Peru, at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo. However, not only the players were the protagonists of the result, but also a ball boy, who helped, in his own way, to make it possible to go to the World Cup.

This is Paul Ortíz, a 19-year-old young man, who at the same time works as a soccer player. The field cooperator did his job to the full, but he could not contain the emotion for the partial victory of the ‘Charrúas’ and decided to intervene directly in the game, whenever he had the chance to do so.

“I heard other results on loudspeaker. We were 1-0 up and the match was tight, so I thought I’d make as much time as possible, because we had to win no matter what. This meeting could not escape us”, reported the ball boy for El País de Uruguay.

From that moment on, Paul Ortíz made the resumption of the match slower, a situation that made Pedro Gallese uncomfortable. As the young protagonist confessed, the goalkeeper of the Peruvian team began to shout at him and make gestures with his eyes so that he would quickly hand over the ball.

However, the Centenario Stadium assistant assured that he turned a deaf ear and even dropped the ball into the water to avoid handing it over. The scene was seen by the Brazilian referee Anderson Daronco, who decided to expel the aforementioned in charge of returning the balls, although he knew how to hide well to continue watching the game.

“I took off my vest and went to the stands. I couldn’t miss the ending. It was crazy, because all the fans were cheering me. I still don’t believe it. I didn’t care if they kicked me out, there was music, fireworks, we were at the World Cup”, narrated Paul Ortiz.

After what happened, the ball boy received a Uruguayan national team shirt as a gift and José María Giménez, defender of the ‘Charrúas’, promised to give him another. In addition, the unexpected participant in the classification took the opportunity to take photos with Facundo Torres, Federico Valverde, Facundo Pellistri and Nicolás de la Cruz.