By Christina Puck May 8, 2009, 11:52 GMT
Hamburg - A paper ball that made worldwide headlines for influencing the outcome of the UEFA Cup semi-final between SV Hamburg and Werder Bremen is in possession of Bremen manager Klaus Allofs.
While videos of the incident on Friday surfaced on YouTube and replicas were sold at internet auctioneers eBay, the new cult-object for Bremen fans had long been secured by Allofs after originally being picked up by a TV staff member after Thursday's match.
'I will take it. This ball will go to Werder's museum and have a special place there,' Allofs said.
The ball, made from a piece of paper used for a pre-match choreography, was thrown by a Hamburg fan onto the pitch during the second half and lay unnoticed for a while.
In the 83rd minute, it made a routine backpass for Michael Gravgaard bounce awkwardly as the Dane hit the ball with his shinbone for a corner - from which Frank Baumann headed Bremen's decisive third goal in a 3-2 win for a place in the UEFA Cup final.
'Paper ball (!!!) decides,' said Germany's Bild daily, and the English tabloids also jumped on the bizarre incident which buried the team of former Tottenham manager Martin Jol.
'A paper cut, Jol,' said the Daily Mirror, and The Sun titled very similarly 'Jol gets a paper cut.'
In Austria, the Kurier daily said: 'This paper ball sealed Hamburg's knockout.'
Gravgaard, who kicked the object out of bounds before the corner was taken, was shocked: 'This much bad luck is impossible. I fully concentrated on the ball and suddenly it took a bad bounce. It is even more bitter that the corner resulted in the goal for 3-1.'
Jol insisted that Gravgaard was not to blame while the object swiftly gained popularity on the internet.
Around a dozen paper balls went on sale Friday morning on eBay, some of them with Bremen memorabilia. Four versions of the incident were found on YouTube with one user suggesting that it created more danger than Bremen striker Markus Rosenberg.
While no major bids were made there, the original paper ball could generate 2.5 million euros for Bremen - the winning bonus if they beat Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup final on May 20
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