Eden Hazard will be among the Chelsea legends taking to the pitch for a legend clash against Liverpool on Saturday.
Whilst there’s no questioning his legendary status at Stamford Bridge, there remains one stain on his record – an incident that nearly reduced the Belgian’s mother to tears.
The notorious moment unfolded in 2013 during a heated League Cup semi-final second leg against Swansea City. The Welsh side were clinging onto their commanding 2-0 advantage from the first leg when ball boy Charlie Morgan, aged 17 at the time, tried to waste time in the 80th minute by lying on the ball after it had gone out of play.
As Hazard frantically attempted to retrieve the ball from Morgan’s grasp, he appeared to kick the youngster, reports the Mirror. Referee Chris Foy promptly showed Hazard a red card.
In 2024, Hazard, now 34, and Morgan reflected on the notorious incident, with the former Real Madrid winger revealing how his family responded to his moment of lunacy.
Hazard said: “My mum was like almost crying. She was like, ‘You kick a boy’. I was like, ‘No I didn’t even touch him I just wanted the ball'”.
Morgan, who has subsequently built a vodka empire with his AU Vodka brand, recalled: “I left that game thinking this was gonna be a small thing. I was quite good friends with a lot of the Swans players at that time.
“There was like a big night out celebrating. Obviously we were in the finals. I get home at like 5.30am so it was like a super late night right.”
He continued: “Mum has a phone call at 6am. The front door is on ITV News and Sky Sports News. Luckily I was home 30 minutes before that so they didn’t see anything. For like a month it was like all the newspapers outside my house like Fox News, Sky News, the paparazzi etc.”
Hazard joked: “You became famous”. Despite that blot on his Chelsea reputation, Hazard also disclosed that the red card he received for his involvement in the incident actually worked in his favour.
During a conversation with former teammate John Obi Mikel on the Obi One podcast, Hazard revealed his sending-off couldn’t have come at a better moment as his wife Natacha was due to give birth.
When asked if he felt remorse for his altercation with Morgan, Hazard responded: “No, not at all because after that game I came back home – saying to myself, “this guy is just staying on the ball and I just tried to kick the ball”, and then I get a red card?”.
“The funny story is my wife was just pregnant and the baby was coming now – that day. So me? Getting the red card? Three games out? Perfect. That’s the reality. Perfect holiday, thank you guys!”.
Nevertheless, Hazard maintained that his kick wasn’t deliberate, insisting it was merely a desperate attempt to get Chelsea back into the tie.
“They’re going to think I did it on purpose, but not at all,” he added. “It’s a bit like when you play on the street. Someone is on the ball?’Hey, give me the ball man'”.
Hazard made the switch from Lille to Chelsea in June 2012 for a fee of £32million. During his time at Stamford Bridge, he clinched two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a League Cup and two Europa League trophies.
In June 2019, he moved to Real Madrid for a reported sum of £130m and added a Champions League title to his trophy cabinet in 2022. Hazard hung up his boots in 2023.
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