Charlie Morgan, the ballboy who sprang to fame after he was kicked by Chelsea player Eden Hazard, is the heir to a £42 million ($65 million) fortune.
Charlie Morgan, 17, is the son of hotel and property tycoon Martin Morgan, said to be the 32nd richest person in Wales.
Martin Morgan is on the Swansea City board of directors – which is how Charlie ended up as a ballboy for yesterday’s League Cup semi-final against the London side.
Posting on Twitter before the game, the teenager wrote: “The king of all ballboys is back making his final appearance #needed #for #timewasting.”
Charlie Morgan’s father is the director of 11 hotel and property companies and has featured in recent editions of the Sunday Times Rich List.
Martin Morgan comes in at number 32 in the top 100 list for Wales – ahead of Premier League footballers Michael Owen and Ryan Giggs and 80s rock chick Bonnie Tyler.
Ben Watkins, 18, a former school friend of Charlie Morgan’s, said: “He must be the richest ballboy in football.
“He’s mad about Swansea City – what he did was a bit foolish especially after be boasted he was going to time waste. I guess he’s been a bit spoiled because his dad’s got pots of money.”
In posts on Twitter Charlie brags about drinking Veuve Clicquot champagne and going on holiday to Las Vegas and Dubai.
During last night’s game, £170,000-a-week Chelsea star Hazard was trying to regain the ball when it went out of play late in the game with the club facing a League Cup exit at the hands of Swansea.
He apparently became infuriated when the boy fell to the ground, landed on the ball and smothered it – costing Chelsea valuable seconds.
Eden Hazard tried to kick it from under the teenager but caught him in the ribs before he finally grabbed the ball and ran off.
The 22-year-old Belgian footballer, who joined the club for £32 million last summer from French side Lille, was sent off after the incident at Swansea City’s Liberty Stadium.
Eden Hazard – whose red card came in the 80th minute of the second leg of the semi-final, which finished 0-0 – walked off the pitch. Several Chelsea players went to tend to the ballboy, left holding his ribs.
The footballer was widely criticized over the incident, but some people blamed Charlie Morgan for the encounter after it emerged he had boasted that he planned to waste time during the match.
After the controversial tweet about “timewasting”, he added: “Haven’t been doing it this season been ask to come back to run them because the person can’t come in cos of the snow.”
The college student was examined by medics in an ambulance but was not seriously injured.
Although police interviewed Charlie Morgan in the presence of his father, the family did not choose to press charges, and they were invited into the Chelsea dressing room where both the teenager and Eden Hazard apologized for their role in the fracas.
In the wake of his new-found fame, Charlie Morgan was laying low at his family mansion in the South Wales countryside with his father and his mother Louisa.
Chelsea players reacted angrily on the pitch when referee Chris Foy produced a red card. They claimed Eden Hazard had tried to get the ball loose to restart play as the clock ticked down.
Eden Hazard told Chelsea TV after the game: “The boy put his whole body onto the ball and I was just trying to kick the ball and I think I kicked the ball and not the boy. I apologize.
“The ballboy came in the changing room and we had a quick chat and I apologized and the boy apologized as well, and it is over. Sorry.”
The cup tie marked an impressive victory for Swansea, who will go to Wembley for the first cup final in their 100-year history after winning 2-0 on aggregate thanks to their first-leg success.
Swansea captain Ashley Williams, who was close to the incident, said afterwards: “Demba Ba said he was holding on to the ball, but I saw him (Hazard) kick him in the ribs. You can’t do that to a little boy.”
But outspoken ‘bad boy’ footballer Joey Barton leaped to the player’s defence, tweeting: ‘Hazard’s only crime is he hasn’t kicked him hard enough.’
The Swans’ manager Michael Laudrup said he expected Eden Hazard would regret the incident when he views it on TV.
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