Swansea ball boy kicked by Eden Hazard now owns multi-million pound company, 11 years on

The Swansea City ball boy who was kicked by Eden Hazard now has an estimated net worth of £40 million, more than a decade on from the incident.

Back in 2013, in a League Cup semi-final second leg between Swansea and Chelsea at the Liberty Stadium, Hazard was sent off in utterly bizarre fashion.

Swansea were leading 2-0 from the first leg and Morgan, 17, tried to hold on to the ball in the 80th minute and lay on it.

Hazard, in a desperate attempt to retrieve the ball, inadvertently kicked the youngster, who proceeded to roll around clutching his ribs.

The Belgian was sent off for his actions and received a three-game ban.

He later issued an apology for his conduct, saying, "The ballboy came in the changing room and we had a quick chat. I apologised and the boy apologised as well, and it is over. Sorry."

Morgan, who was studying for his A-Levels at the time, became something of a meme for his reaction and soon grew into a viral phenomenon, with his Twitter followers climbing to 100,000.

The king of all ball boys is back making his final appearance #needed #for #timewasting

— Charlie Morgan (@CHARLIEM0RGAN) January 23, 2013

Fast forward 11 years and Morgan is now on top of the world.

The son of Swansea City director Martin, he and friend Jackson Quinn set up Au Vodka after noticing a gap in the market for a premium Vodka, especially in bottle service.

The brand, with its trademark gold bottles in an array of flavours, has gone on to provide service to the likes of Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Tesco, Costco, Sainsbury's and Asda.

To start with, they produced 2,000 bottles a day locally to bars in Swansea but the remarkable growth of the company has seen that figure increase to 35,000 bottles per day and Au is available in 40 countries across the globe.

Ronaldinho and Floyd Mayweather are some of the big-name celebrities to endorse Au, while DJ and radio host Charlie Sloth is a business partner and investor.

The Spirits Business named Au as the most popular vodka brand on the internet and The Times named Au as the company to watch out for in 2023.

They now have more than 50 staff at their headquarters, as well as a massive 630,000 followers on social media.

On the 'Rich list', both Charlie and Jackson were placed in 24th place and the next target for the pair is to crack America after penning a deal with Total Wine Liquor.

Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather in the gold gang🏆 @FloydMayweather https://t.co/pBlLOy9rNY pic.twitter.com/JDpMZWj4Nt

— Au Vodka (@AuVodka) January 21, 2021

As per Wales Online, Morgan said: “The coming year, our focus is really on smashing into the American market. We have recently launched our E-commerce platform covering 31 states across the US so customers are already able to get our products delivered straight to their door.

"Having had over 28,000 sign-ups to the USA website prior to launch we’re expecting that there will be a huge interest in Au Vodka within the states.

"The vision is for Au Vodka to become a truly global brand, known in an instant for its unique gold branding and coloured liquids, we see the bottles being stocked on shelves internationally and becoming accessible for customers in every corner of the world. We also want to ensure we continue to dominate the UK Vodka market, keeping a tight grip on where we started to ensure the brand is true to its roots, there’s always room for more growth everywhere."

Former Real Madrid and Chelsea winger Hazard is said to have a net worth of £85 million but Morgan is very much on his toes.