Can you believe it’s now more than a decade since Eden Hazard kicked Swansea City ball boy Charlie Morgan during his debut season with Chelsea?
Time really does fly.
Hazard was shown a straight red card by referee Chris Foy following the bizarre incident during a League Cup clash at the Liberty Stadium in January 2013.
What happened between Eden Hazard and the Swansea ball boy?
The Belgian winger caught the young lad while attempting to retrieve the ball. Only a teenager at the time, Morgan appeared to be in considerable pain as he left the pitch while holding his side.
“The boy put his whole body on to the ball and I was just trying to kick the ball,” Hazard insisted after the two-legged tie, which Chelsea lost 2-0 on aggregate. “I think I kicked the ball and not the boy. I apologise.”
The youngster took to Twitter to confirm that he’d spoken to Hazard and wouldn’t be pressing charges. South Wales Police also stated that no action would be taken against the former Lille star, who was 22 at the time.
Charlie, it turned out, was the 17-year-old son of Swansea director Martin Morgan – owner of the Morgans Hotel and worth a reported £65 million, according to The Sun.
In the aftermath of the Hazard incident, Charlie’s social media following went from 600 to 100,000. Several newspapers, meanwhile, revealed the youngster lived an ‘enviable lifestyle’ involving luxury holidays and flash cars.
Swansea ball boy went on to create Au Vodka
However, Charlie is now well and truly living the high life.
Three years after his clash with Hazard, Charlie realised his dream of setting up his own business after spotting a gap in the alcohol market.
Alongside his friend Jackson Quinn, the pair created Au Vodka – a vision that stemmed from watching their pals unwrap bottles of their favourite vodka on their 18th, 19th and 20th birthdays.
Per the Manchester Evening News (MEN), Au Vodka has gone from a one-time limited run of 2,000 bottles (sold to local bars in Swansea) to now manufacturing a remarkable 35,000 bottles daily over the past six years.
Popular with young adults thanks in part to its eye-catching gold design, Au Vodka now comes in seven flavours: Au Original, Black Grape, Fruit Punch, Blue Raspberry, Green Watermelon, Red Cherry and Pineapple Crush. A limited edition Double Espresso Coffee Liqueur, meanwhile, was released in December 2021.
Four flavours are sold at Tesco stores UK wide, while Sainsbury’s and Asda also sell the product.
The brand has also gone international and can be purchased in 40 countries around the world, including Australia, Spain, the United States and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
The addition of Charlie Sloth – a British DJ, producer and TV presenter – was a game-changer for the company.
“Things really blew up for us in 2019 when Charlie came on board,” Jordan Major, Head of e-Commerce at Au Vodka, was quoted saying by Retail Sector in October 2021.
“Charlie helped us get endorsements from UK rappers and celebrities, including the likes of Headie One, Chip and Nines.
“We then launched our Black Grape flavour, and we coloured the vodka itself to match – which was something that hadn’t really been done with vodka before. It was a huge success.
“Then, earlier this year, we had our biggest endorsement yet – from boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. Floyd is a hero of ours, so it was a really surreal moment to see him holding bottles of Au Vodka.”
The meteoric rise of Au Vodka
Crowned the winner of Brightpearl’s Lightning 50 – a league table that showcases the UK’s fastest-growing retail brands – in 2021, Au Vodka’s turnover grew from £800,000 to a mind-blowing £38.5 million, according to Retail Sector.
Named the most popular vodka brand on the internet by The Spirits Business, Au Vodka’s founders Charlie and Jackson entered The Times’ Young Rich List in 2022, with an estimated fortune of £40 million each.
Au Vodka was also named by The Times as the number one company to watch in 2023, per the MEN’s report.
Sunday Times Young Rich List for 2023 released
Five months into 2023 and Morgan and Jackson have made The Sunday Times’ List Rich – Richest People Under 35 in the UK – for the second year running.
They now sit in joint-27th spot with a personal fortune of £55 million each.
To put that into perspective, the Au Vodka duo are even higher on the list than One Direction superstars Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson (£54 million each).
They’re also above England and Tottenham captain Harry Kane (£51 million).
Morgan and Jackson are now closing in on Harry Potter megastar Emma Watson (£60 million) and Premier League star Raheem Sterling (£61 million).
And it might not be too much longer before they’re knocking on the doors of Gareth Bale (£70 million) and pop star Dua Lipa (£75 million).
Charlie Morgan: ‘It’s been an immense journey
“It’s almost hard to take a moment to reflect when we have the next big project coming up and there is always something new we’re working on,” Charlie said previously. “But, looking back on how far we have come, it’s been such an immense journey with plenty of milestones hit and definitely so much more to come.
“A big milestone for us was entering huge multinational grocers, Tesco. It was a big moment for us, seeing our flavours stocked on the shelves of stores nationwide. We now have four flavours available in Tesco including, Blue Raspberry, Red Cherry, Pineapple Crush and our Double Espresso Coffee Liqueur, with much more to come. We’re also going into Sainsbury’s and Asda in October which will also be a surreal moment for us, not to mention that we’re also stocked in hundreds of Wetherspoons across the country.
“International expansion of the brand has proved to be another success for us, we’re now sold in over 40 countries worldwide. Having E-commerce stores in Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, among many others, allows customers in these countries to order our vodka straight to their doors. This year we even launched in O Beach Ibiza, the venue famous for its iconic pool parties on the original party island so this was a big moment for us too. They even have a giant Au Vodka Gold Bottle which circles its way above the outdoor venue.”
The ex-ball boy added: “We saw a big gap in the market that we could infiltrate Au Vodka into so this summer we released new Blue Raspberry Ready to Drink (RTD) cans. It was the perfect time for us to expand into the RTD sector, with the weather heating up, customers were looking for a simple, more stylish and extremely refreshing alternative to the normal drinking cans. The launch had a great response, with over two million cans having now sold to online customers, convenience stores and nationwide wholesalers, distinctly proving that this was a great move for us to make. We’ve even received incredible interest on our other flavours in the form of pre-mixed cans.
“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.”
Was being booted by Hazard a sliding doors moment for Charlie, now 26? Who knows.
But it’s certainly been some journey for one of the football’s most famous former ball boys.
