Jose Mourinho showed his thanks to a quick thinking Tottenham ball boy after Harry Kane scored against Olympiacos.
Striker Kane tapped in after Lucas Moura’s perfectly paced cut back to draw Spurs level with the Greek side in their Champions League clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
But it was the ingenuity between a ball boy and Serge Aurier in build-up before Moura took over which caught Mourinho’s attention.
After winning a quick throw-in mid-way into the Olympiacos half, the boy on the sidelines smartly chased the ball and dispatched to right-back Aurier.
Mourinho made a point of moving down the touchline to find the ball boy and shock his hand with a warm embrace.
(Image: PA)
The goal drew Spurs level having been two goal behind – with Y El Arabi and Ruben Semedo both scoring for the bottom placed team in Group B
Dele Alli had drawn in first half stoppage time before Kane’s finish.
It isn’t the first time in recent times that a Premier League club were benefit by a ball boy’s rapid thinking – with Liverpool on the receiving end of a youngster’s cleverness against Barcelona last season.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
On that occasion at Anfield, Trent Alexander-Arnold was able to catch out the Barca defence by quickly taking a corner, with Divock Origi slapping in.
That goal set the Reds on the way to a sensational comeback to reach the Champions League final – where they beat Tottenham.
Mourinho, who became Spurs manager last week, hasn’t always been as happy with ball boys – having sacked a number of the Manchester United ones in 2017 and yelled at one of Crystal Palace’s on another occasion.
At United, the Portuguese reportedly replaced Manchester United Foundation kids with academy starlets.
On an away trip to Palace, Mourinho wagged his finger at, chastised a ball boy and warned him that a player might punch him for slowing down play.
