Carlos Riera, the viral ball boy of the Count of Godó

It happened in 2016, in a first round of the Count of Godo in between Nicolas Almagro y Teymuraz Gabashvili. Do you remember who won that match? It doesn’t matter, what they surely haven’t been able to forget is the fall of that ball boy in the middle of the second set that quickly became one of the most viral videos in modern tennis.

That ‘boy’ is called Carlos Riera (Barcelona, ​​2001), is 22 years old and has once again been in the news thanks to the reunion that has been experienced seven years later between the two protagonists of this story. Given such an emblematic story, break point I couldn’t resist going one step further and interviewing Carlos, who is currently still linked to the tournament while finishing his university studies at ADE. A report that we could not ignore on our way through Barcelona.

What is your role in the tournament right now?

I finished my stage as a ball boy just the year of pinch (2016), at 16 you stop being ballboy and you can work in other sectors. Now I’m an usher at the entrance doors to the stadium, helping people get to their seats and checking that they enter when it’s time. Since I was 12 years old I have been working for the tournament, but I have been going to Godó since he was a dwarf.

Pure tradition.

It is the beautiful thing that Godó has, that it is a very familiar tournament. Most of the people who work here are from the tennis school, or we are members, or children of members, but we are all people from the club who work for the tournament. That makes everything closer between us, an environment that can be breathed from the first day.

Of all the kickers that the tournament has had, surely there is no other like you.

(Laughter) No kid ever dreams of becoming famous as a ball boy. Maybe from my case some kid can have it in their imagination, in fact, last year one fell on Center Court and we thought it could go viral, but it didn’t go viral. Few things like this happen, those responsible are great professionals and always transmit that seriousness that is necessary for the position.

We have seen the GIF hundreds of times, but I would like you to explain it to me in detail.

It all starts with Almagro passing balls to me, but you know that there is a tarpaulin at the back of the court that is used to cover it when it rains. The problem is that, if it is not fully folded, there is a high risk of tripping. That was my case, I tripped over the carpet that covers the canvas.

What a moment that must have been.

To tell you the truth, at that moment I freaked out: ‘The one that I have bundled!‘. Above all because of that character of going unnoticed that they instill in the ball boys, they always emphasize that to us. I tried to get to my feet as soon as possible, even though I thought everyone had seen it.

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— Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (@bcnopenbs) April 20, 2023

They saw it?

Nobody saw it (laughs). My family was on the track and they didn’t notice. Almagro’s wife, who was right in the next box, did not see the fall either. When Almagro turns and looks at me with that murderous face, what I do is look for a friend he had in the stands, but he hadn’t seen anything either. Once I got off the track, the only thing I thought about was the ball boy court that was taking place on Thursday, so I went straight to talk to one of my managers to see if he would tell me something about the crash…

And good?

Nothing, they didn’t find out either, as if nothing.

At what point does the video go viral?

That same afternoon I went to my parents’ house and told them that I had fallen, I showed them the scratch that I did to my knee, but they didn’t think about it anymore, partly because I had to go to soccer training. At that time I didn’t have a phone, so I found out when I came home and met my father again: ‘But Carlos, what happened?’

(laughs)

What had happened is that he was in a WhatsApp group of the ball boys and the application was bursting. That’s when I first realized the repercussion… the worst thing is that that same night they repeated Almagro’s game again on Teledeporte, so the messages multiplied.

And this was only the beginning.

Imagine, the next day the video was everywhere. It came out in the TIMES, friends from the United States wrote to tell me that I had gotten there. Even in La Vanguardia they wrote an opinion article on the subject, ‘fall down and get up‘ I think they titled it.

How did you manage those moments?

Honestly, I’ve always laughed a lot with the video, it’s always made me laugh, I’ve never been ashamed. With friends it is a subject that always comes up, but it has never bothered me. At school it also caused quite a rage, people pointed at me and laughed, but always without malice, I never felt self-conscious, I took it with a lot of humor.

there was no bullying.

No way! And if someone tried it, it didn’t work.

What do you think now when you see it?

Let’s see, now I don’t find it funny anymore because I’ve seen it too many times, what still makes me laugh is the reaction of people when they see it.

Let’s talk about Nicolás Almagro. But not the one of now, the one of 2016.

Well let’s see, among the ball boys it was already commented that Nico did not have a very good character on the track, in fact, this week I told him about it at the reunion and he recognized it, he told me that it was his method of concentration. In part, I was scared of that: because of the setting, because of the player and because at that moment they were bringing him back. Being by your side box, I was listening to all his complaints, he was quite angry. At the moment I fall, the look that gives me is to want to kill me (laughs).

Seven years later, it was time for this reunion.

The point is that he only played the tournament again the following year (2017), which is why the tournament did not keep him in mind. But this year it was the 70th anniversary of Godó and there was a great meeting of ex-players, so a colleague found it and the subject of the video came up. So Nico leaves this girl a note for me, saying that he wanted to take a picture with me and remember the moment. The marketing girl found out about all this and the result is what you have seen.

Did it excite you?

A lot! It was a very nice meeting, people have even congratulated me, it is a video that has been liked a lot. We spent about 10 minutes chatting, with his wife I also talked about how he lived it from the box. Nico explained to me how he felt from his perspective, that when he heard a very loud noise he thought something had happened in the car. box of his wife. We both share our views on that moment.

You take an unforgettable memory.

Of course, even the next day we ran into each other again and talked for another five minutes. He is a very big guy, very easygoing, I asked him if he could take a picture with my father and he was available for everything. We had never met, the last time was seven years ago, so it was a perfect reunion.

I love seeing how well you’ve handled it all.

From all this I get more positive things than negative. If we went back in time, I would sign to fall again (laughs). The truth is that I have laughed a lot at this video, I have also seen how those around me have laughed, but always in a good way, without mocking. I have never had any problems, I would be delighted if it happened again.

You will be associated with that video for the rest of your life,’the boy of the fall in the Count of Godó‘. Can this get tiring?

I don’t think so, people know the video but they don’t know who that child is. At the time they did stop me a lot on the street, especially in the days of Godó, but now the normal thing is that nobody recognizes me. The same with my friends, that joke is behind us, they spent too much on it at the time.

The same now with the reunion they stop you again.

It may be that the joke returns a bit, this week more people have recognized me, they have even asked me for photos (laughs). But I don’t think I’ll ever regret it, the video will keep coming out, but people won’t recognize the person behind it.