Over the past couple of days, you'll probably have seen Valencia youngster David Ruiz and his entry to the increasingly competitive 'worst dive ever' competition. Ruiz, comfortably in control of the ball, was attempting to halt the progress of Celtic's Jack Aitchison during injury time of the UEFA Youth League clash at Parkhead this week when he inexplicably decided to throw himself to the ground instead of dealing with the 'danger' at hand.
The knives were out and we were fully a part of it.
'It's the damn foreigners that are doing this to the beautiful game'. 'He'd have to be Spanish of course, you wouldn't see that kind of thing if he was from Manorhamilton'. (We may be making some of those quotes up but you get the point)
If you haven't seen it so far, here it is once more.
To be honest, something always seemed a bit off. The simple fact that there was absolutely no need to do it was a bit of a give away but perhaps we have just become so used to it that even this did not come as a surprise. However, it should have.
Our young player @David_Ruiz7 is injured and will be out for six months. What about an apology? https://t.co/rptcGsFjDP
— Valencia CF (@valenciacf) February 11, 2016
It has since been confirmed that the young defender suffered a fairly severe knee injury during the incident and will have to undergo surgery for cruciate ligament damage in the coming weeks. A sincere apology is in order of course however, that's not to say it excuses the referee who still shouldn't have given Valencia a free kick that prevented Aitchison from going through on goal and possibly clinching the tie for Celtic.
Anyone who jumped to the worst conclusion offers him an apology but perhaps no more so than Deadspin who lead with the headline:
They've apologised.
