Premier League goalkeeper pushes ball boy for timewasting

Bernd Leno made headlines for the wrong reasons when he shoved a ball boy during Fulham’s game at Bournemouth. With 15 minutes left in the 90 at Vitality Stadium, Fulham trailed Bournemouth by two goals. Desperate to restart the game, the Fulham goalkeeper hunted a ball from one of the ball boys behind the Fulham goal.

However, the ball boy did not throw the ball to the German goalkeeper when he asked for it. Instead, the Fulham ball boy cleverly held onto the ball and sauntered over to give Leno the ball. Frustrated with the ball boy, Bernd Leno shoved the Bournemouth ball boy. It was not an aggressive push, but it was enough to send a message.

At the time, Leno was sitting on a yellow card. With intentional contact to someone on the sidelines, officials generally brandish a yellow card at events like this. Yet, Leno escaped the situation without picking up his second booking. The situation did not matter for Fulham, though. The Cottagers went on to lose the game at Dean Court. Additionally, Bournemouth scored a goal to make it a three-goal lead in stoppage time, adding to Fulham’s suffering.

However, the officials removed the ball boys from around the pitch to avoid any further altercations. That ended the multi-ball protocol at the end of the match. That goes against the Premier League’s ambition to avoid all timewasting from teams in the lead.

Fulham manager insists there was no wrongdoing

After the game, Fulham boss Marco Silva claimed Leno was not overly out of line in how he acted on the pitch. The Portuguese boss claimed it was not a shove, but rather a touch. Silva said he was unsure over whether Bournemouth ball boys had instructions to delay the game as they did.

“I don’t know if it was instruction or not, but the ball boys were always delaying,” Silva said. “Bernd wanted to play quickly and he took the ball from the ball boy. He didn’t push him, it wasn’t strong enough and he apologized.”

Bernd Leno is unlikely to face any kind of sanctioning for the push on the ball boy. As this was not a serious interaction, the match officials dictated all the circumstances.

Bernd Leno creates latest in-game ball boy story

The Premier League has a history of interactions with ball boys, both good and bad. For example, Eden Hazard once kicked a ball boy at Swansea when the ball boy did not give the ball to the Belgian when he was at Chelsea. A Tottenham ball boy made a heroic play during a Champions League game when he provided a Spurs player with the ball to quickly restart the game.

Jose Mourinho, the Tottenham manager at the time, even congratulated the ball boy and gave him a tour of the first-team facilities.

In this instance, Bernd Leno apologized to the ball boy at the Bournemouth game for shoving him. He is likely to start between the sticks when the Cottagers host league-leading Arsenal on New Year’s Eve.

PHOTO: IMAGO.