Famous ball boy now worth £55 million meets Eden Hazard 11 years after he was kicked
Life is filled with full-circle moments.
One minute you're a 17-year-old getting kicked in the torso by a professional footballer, and the next minute you're having a drink with him from your multi-million dollar business.
Back in 2013, ball-boy Charlie Morgan was on the receiving end of a kick from Chelsea star Eden Hazard during the second-leg League Cup semi-final match against Swansea City AFC.
The Welsh side had a 2-0 lead going into the second game and were just 90 minutes away from the final.
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However, ten minutes from time, with the score at 0-0, Morgan retrieved the ball for a home side goal kick, and - let's just say - he took his time to return the ball.
As Morgan was lying on top of the ball, up came Chelsea's Hazard who kicked the 17-year-old in a frustrated attempt to dislodge the ball.
After Hazard was sent off, the game finished as 0-0 and Swansea were into, arguably, the biggest final of the club's history.
Hazard later apologised for the incident.
Ten years on, Morgan is now a 27-year-old businessman, who is worth millions thanks to his successful beverage business he created with school friend, Jackson Quinn.
Au Vodka has been a popular drink with the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Paddy Pimblett and Jake Paul having posed with the bottles in the past.
The vodka brand saw a big sales boost during the pandemic and Morgan said this was down to 'a lot of lockdown parties going on' leading to higher consumer interest.
Starting from 'humble beginnings' to making 2,000 bottles of vodka per day, production levels have now surged to 35,000 a day to keep up with demand.
Speaking in 2021, Morgan said that he and Quinn were best friends in school as the pair noticed a gap in the vodka market.
"The growth has been just phenomenal. There are so many people in the world who are involved in it now, which is exciting," he said.
"We thought we could do well, but it's probably gone bigger than we thought we could do already."
Now, in a post shared on Hazard's social media accounts earlier today (24 January), it seems that all has been forgiven as the footballer is pictured alongside the vodka founder whilst they both cheers with an Au drink in hand.
"A nice thing about retirement is catching up with old friends. You have come a long in way in 11 years my friend @charliem0rgan @auvodka x @hazardeden10," Hazard captioned the very smiley photo.
In the replies, one fan commented: "How time flies," whilst others called it 'amazing'.
Anish Vij