In his first assignment as a ball boy, Noel Urbaniak from the German team helps a curious goal against Italy. At first he didn’t want to be a ball boy at all.
Noel Urbaniak will probably never forget the March 23, 2025 and the Nations League semi-final against Italy in Dortmund. The 36th minute ran and Italy slept when the 15-year-old B-junior player from Hombrucher SV was wide awake and reaction fast and helped the German team to a curious goal.
What happened? Germany led 1-0, Italy’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had just clarified a header from Tim Kleindienst to the corner.
For the first time ball boy
For Noel Urbaniak it was the premiere that evening. His trainer at Hombrucher SV had tickets for the Nation’s League game in Dortmund, the only condition: “You have to be ball boys.” At first, Noel had no great desire, as his mother Katharina told in the WDR interview. “Noel first said that ball boy – that’s not for me. But then he went to the game with four other players.”
The Dortmund stadium is very familiar. “We are big BVB fans, the whole family is BVB crazy and we go to many games. As a little boy, Noel went to the stadium,” reports Noel’s mother.
“We had eye contact”
Noel will remember his first use as a ball boy for a long time. On Sunday evening he held the ball in his hand when DFB captain Joshua Kimmich approached him to perform the corner kick. The 15-year-old recognized the situation and threw the ball to Kimmich at lightning speed, who exploited Italy’s inattentiveness in the penalty area and played flat in the middle, where Jamal Musiala stood completely freely and hit the empty goal.
“We had eye contact, I immediately thrown the ball to him, then the goal happened,” said Noel Urbaniak the situation after the game. After the final whistle, the ball boy and Kimmich met for a photo together on the edge of the field. “Jo signed the ball and said thank you.”
Praise from the national coach
There was special praise from the national coach: “Very smart, incredibly smart, they do that very well,” said Julian Nagelsmann. “From all three absolute world class.” He meant the world -class players Joshua Kimmich and Jamal Musiala – and the ball boys Noel Urbaniak. DFB sports director Rudi Völler promised: “He gets a free ticket at the next home game.”
Incidentally, for Noel Urbaniak it was not the first goal participation that day. In the morning, his mother drove him to the away game of the B-Juniors of the Hombrucher SV III, in the Volksgarten Mengede Noel scored the 6-2 final score. One day can hardly go more successfully.
Telephone is no longer quiet
Mother Katharina had persecuted the situation in front of the television and wrote the news directly by cell phone: “Was that?” The pending response from the ninth grader of the Heinrich Böll comprehensive school in Lütgendortmund: “Yes, that was me!” Since then, the phone rings incessantly, and over 70 inquiries have been received by the family and in the club.
Our sources:
- WDR reporter on site
- Interview with the mother of the ball boy
