Ballboy kicked by Eden Hazard is now worth £55 million

A former ballboy once kicked by a Premier League star in a high-profile football controversy is now worth £55 million and on the Under 35’s Sunday Times Rich List.

Charlie Morgan was thrust into the centre of a football storm when he was kicked by then Chelsea winger Eden Hazard during a Capital One Cup semi-final clash with home side Swansea in 2013.

The then 17-year-old Morgan appeared to delay handing over the ball after it had gone out of play for a goal kick. Attempting to free the ball, Hazard tried to kick it from under him. 

Instead, he appeared to make contact with the ballboy’s ribs, and was shown a straight red card by referee Chris Foy. He was subsequently banned for three games.

But it seems Morgan has now made his own name for himself after launching a multi-million-pound vodka brand with school friend Jackson Quinn in 2015,

Belgian-born Hazard, having moved to Real Madrid in 2019, is not featured on the Sunday Times list himself.

In 2022, Forbes estimated Hazard’s earnings for the year to have been around £25m – but his net worth could be higher.

He is estimated to earn around £380,000-per-week on his contract in Spain, which still has one year to run. 

Morgan, whose father is the director of Swansea FC and a hotelier, is now worth £55m and is 27th on the list – seeing him ahead of the likes of Harry Kane, Cara Delevingne and Niall Horan.

His vodka empire Au Vodka, is known for its distinctive gold bottles and unique flavours, is endorsed by a number of well-known faces. 

Among them is ex-footballer Ronaldinho, rapper Professor Green, club owner Wayne Lineker, and boxers Floyd Mayweather, Jake Paul and John Fury.

Boxer Jake Paul even got a tattoo of an Au Vodka bottle on his right arm, eleven days before his clash with Love Islander and boxer Tommy Fury. 

British DJ, producer and presenter Charlie Sloth is also a partial owner of the company. After his involvement the company saw record sales, with millions of bottles flying off the shelves each year. 

The brand’s trademark gold bottle matches the company’s name, Au – which is the periodic symbol for gold.

It also boasts eight flavours including Original, Black Grape, Red Cherry, Green Watermelon, Pink Lemonade, Bubblegum, Blue Raspberry and Pineapple Crush.

After the launch of Black Grape, which sold 10,000 bottles in 2019, the company went on to sell a staggering 1.7 million bottles in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Speaking to WalesOnline in 2021, Morgan said: ‘We were 18, 19, 20 at the time and every one of our friends for their birthday would always get a bottle of the same old vodkas. We just felt it was a bit boring.

‘We just felt we could do it a little bit better. For us, we wanted to do a gold bottle which we felt was completely different, and a couple of years later we did vibrant liquid colours of the vodka itself.’

The brand has enjoyed international expansion, and is now sold in 40 countries across the globe from Dubai, to Australia, Spain, the Netherlands and, most recently, 32 states across America.

It has also gained entry into huge international venues, specifically launching within O Beach Ibiza last summer.

Morgan said after the incident that he had spoken to Eden Hazard, who moved from Chelsea to Madrid for around £100million in 2019.

He wrote: ‘Crazy 24 hours. Spoke to Hazard and I will not be pressing charges. Be in touch.’

The message went out to his 100,000 followers – up from 600 before he had his moment in the spotlight.