Maradona Thought German Striker Thomas Mueller Was a Ballboy

↵
↵Sorry, I’m one of those blinkered monolingual Americans, so you’re on your own for translating the exact German and Spanish dialogue in this video. But thankfully someone has done the work for us and pointed out that Argentina coach Diego Maradona back in March at this post-game press conference following a 1-0 win in a friendly over Germany, initially thought that 20-year-old German striker Thomas Mueller was a ballboy and jokingly refused to share the stage with him until he left.↵↵⇥[Mueller] was virtually unknown outside of Germany when he made his debut in a 1-0 friendly defeat to Argentina in Munich in March and attended the post-match press conference as his country’s great new hope alongside the Argentina coach. ↵⇥Maradona joked he thought the ballboy had arrived and felt so slighted that he stormed off and refused to return until the German left the stage to him alone.↵↵↵Since then, it’s likely Maradona and the rest of the world have come to know Mueller quite well, what with his three goals in the World Cup, including two in Germany’s 4-1 victory over England in the last round. Now that Germany and Argentina are meeting Saturday in a quarterfinal match, the incident is being revisited. Even Mueller acknowledges there was little chance that Maradona could have been familiar with him prior to March.↵

↵↵⇥“Now I have won two titles and played in the Champions League with Bayern, so a few things have changed,” said Mueller.↵↵↵Obscurity couldn’t help him have a major impact in that friendly. With newfound attention, he’ll have to produce results against Argentina Saturday.↵

↵