A Soccer Player Intentionally Kicked A Ball Boy In The Stomach

Chelsea’s Eden Hazard was thrown out of the Capital One Cup semifinal for… kicking the ball boy in the stomach?

Image by Rebecca Naden / Reuters

Chelsea and Swansea played today in the second leg of the Capital One Cup semifinals, but a bizarre feud with a ball boy was the lone highlight in a 0-0 draw.

With 10 minutes left to play and the game scoreless (but Swansea up 2-0 on aggregate after a first leg victory), Chelsea was desperate to score. During a break in play, Chelsea winger Eden Hazard scurried near the stands to collect the ball, but a defiant ball boy smothered the ball under his stomach. Hazard, presumably thinking the ball boy was intentionally time wasting to aid Swansea (and Hazard may be right), kicked the ball boy, and was given a red card.

4. Here’s the video of the whole peculiar episode.

Video available at: http://buzzfeed-video1.s3.amazonaws.com/video/2013/01/23/kick-624x300.mp4.

Via: Nicholas Schwartz

Obviously, Hazard shouldn’t have kicked the ball boy, but new details make it plausible that the ball boy may have planned to intentionally waste time to aid Swansea.

6. The Sun is reporting that the ball boy’s name is Charlie Morgan. On what appears to be Morgan’s Twitter account, he tweeted this afternoon he would be the ball boy.

Numerous pictures tweeted from that account make it likely that it belongs to the ball boy in question. At the very least, this Charlie Morgan lives in England, has a lot of football memorabilia that a ballboy might have access to, and is a dead ringer for the kid Hazard kicked.

Via: @CHARLIEM0RGAN

7. Morgan also tweeted before the game that he’s particularly adept at timewasting.

Via: @CHARLIEM0RGAN

8. Chelsea manager Rafael Benitez said in his press conference after the game the two sides had made up.

Via: @henrywinter