Ballboy kicked by Eden Hazard is now worth £55 million
Ballboy who was kicked by Eden Hazard worth £55 million is named on Sunday Times Rich List for under 35s thanks to £43m multi-coloured vodka empire which boasts brand deals with footballers, DJs and YouTubers
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.
Former Swansea ball boy Charlie Morgan (pictured o the ground) is worth an estimated £55million
Morgan (pictured left) launched premium vodka brand Au with school friend Jackson Quinn (pictured right) in 2015
Morgan’s brand Au Vodka is well-known for its shiny gold bottles and brightly-coloured vodka
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.
Au Vodka, which 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.
DJ and producer Charlie Sloth (pictured) partially owns Au Vodka. His involvement saw the company’s sales shoot up
Boxer Jake Paul even got a tattoo of an Au Vodka bottle on his right arm
Irish boxer John Fury, who is the father of Love Islander and boxer Tommy Fury, also endorses the brand
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.’