London – Cristiano Ronaldo is one of a kind. With Five Ballon d’Ors and 32 trophies, including seven league titles, five champions leagues and a UEFA European Championship win with Portugal, he is, without question, one of the greatest footballers to ever play the game. On top of this he is the most followed person in the world on Instagram with 336 million followers, 60 million more than 2nd place, and is the first footballer billionaire. Now a one-of-a-kind Cristiano Ronaldo NFT trading card, minted by Sorare, a digital fantasy football game, is coming to Bonhams for an exclusive online sale, Cristiano Ronaldo: One of a Kind, between 1-11 November. It is estimated to sell for $800,000-1,200,000. Crypto currency Ethereum will be accepted.
Bonhams Head of Digital Art, Nima Sagharchi, said: “Sports trading cards have been valued and collected for over a century, and 2021 is very much the year of the sports card with physical cards representing Lebron James, Luka Doncic and Tom Brady each already having sold for millions of dollars.
Sorare presents us with the natural evolution of this format, a fantasy trading card game in digital form with cards that accrue rewards. Bonhams has always aimed to push boundaries in our sales and to be the first auction house to offer an NFT of this kind is a very exciting prospect, particularly as this NFT is of the great Cristiano Ronaldo. The excitement felt up and down the nation when he returned to the Premier League in September was palpable – we felt an equal excitement learning that he would be coming to Bonhams.”
The present NFT is the only unique card of Ronaldo minted for the 2020/2021 season and is officially licenced by the player and his team . It shows him in the black and white kit of Juventus but remains usable in the game despite Ronaldo’s transfer to Manchester United. Sorare is a fantasy game of football, where players buy, sell, trade, and manage a virtual team with digital playing cards. The game uses blockchain technology based on Ethereum and was developed in 2018 by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montford. As with traditional fantasy football, the teams are ranked based on the performance of their players on the real-world football pitch.
The supply of cards is limited and use of the blockchain means that digital cards have provable scarcity. They come in three formats: unique (1 of 1), super rare (1 of 10) and rare (1 of 100). The Ronaldo card on offer is unique and, as one the greatest players of the modern era, arguably the most desirable card in the game.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Born and raised in Madeira, Ronaldo began his senior club career playing for Sporting CP, before signing with Manchester United in 2003, aged 18. He went on to win three consecutive Premier League titles, The Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup with the Manchester club. At the age of 23, he won his first Ballon d’Or. Ronaldo became the most expensive footballer of the time when he signed for Real Madrid in 2009 in a transfer worth €94 million (£80 million). There he won 15 trophies, including two La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey and four Champions Leagues, and became the club’s all-time top goalscorer. In 2018, Ronaldo signed for Juventus in a transfer worth an initial €100 million (£88 million), the most expensive transfer for an Italian club and the most expensive transfer for a player over 30 years old. He won two Serie A titles, two Supercoppe Italiana and a Coppa Italia, before returning to Manchester United in 2021.
Ronaldo made his senior international debut for Portugal in 2003 at the age of 18 and has since earned over 180 caps, making him Portugal’s most-capped player. With more than 100 goals at international level, he is also the nation’s all-time top goalscorer. He has played in and scored at 11 major tournaments; he scored his first international goal at Euro 2004, where he helped Portugal reach the final. He assumed full captaincy of the national team in July 2008. He led Portugal to their first major tournament title at Euro 2016.
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