Erling Haaland is the next big thing is world football, and the recent record-breaking sale of the striker’s NFT perfectly conveys that. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are in the twilight of their careers, and soon the torch will be passed to Haaland, and Paris Saint-Germain/France forward Kylian Mbappe.
They are the two young, emerging superstars that will replace the current pair of seasoned galacticos that currently dominate “best active player” conversations. Thus, it’s fitting that it was Ronaldo who Haaland surpassed to reach the most valuable non fungible token benchmark.
You can click here for more information on Sorare, the producers of the NFTs, who seemed well aware, going into the auction that a Haaland NFT sale could conceivably shatter the record. The French firm, specializing in data and statistical analytics, even stated before the bidding began that it all “could go down as the most expensive auction in platform history.”
The NFT, which you can view below, was bought by an online user named Zima Blue, who paid in cryptocurrency of course. Naturally, a story about a Gen-Z footballer and his NFT would include a crypto reference. The victorious bid came in the amount of 265.100 Ethereum, the cryptocurrency utilized in trading these online versions of cards.
Erling Haaland bought for 265.1001 ETH (678327.53$) by Zima Blue on the primary market
Season: 2021-2022
Level: 0
Serial: 1/1
Price: 678327.53$? Sorare: https://t.co/Rwrqaq1A2l
?: https://t.co/gG95GsLnYm#Sorare #NFT #Ethereum #FantasyFootball
— SorareBot by SorareData (@SorareBot) January 30, 2022
At that time of sale, Jan 30, the value of the winning amount converted to $687,000 (or €614,000 or £511,000). The previous Sorare record was set in November, when a similar Cristiano Ronaldo NFT was auctioned off at $400,312. For those who don’t quite understand NFTs, or cryptocurrency for that matter, well we’ve written extensively about those two topics here and also here.
Everything related to Erling Haaland is super-hot right now. The Borussia Dortmund and Norway center forward is a young man in demand, and you definitely see that in the sports trading card business.
On a special episode of this website’s podcast, we focused on the hobby, and when it came to Erling Haaland rookie card discussion, there were many oohs and aahs. The same kind of reactions can occur when the Norwegian hit man, with footballing in his blood, takes to the pitch.
He’s the best pure scorer that the beautiful game has seen in quite some time, and that’s about to pay off big dividends for Dortmund very soon. While the competition to acquire Haaland NFTs and rookie cards is fierce enough, it’s all just chicken feed and child’s play when compared to what will happen this summer transfer window.
Real Madrid, Manchester City, Manchester United, FC Barcelona, (possibly) Chelsea FC (again), Bayern Munich- they’ll all be in for BVB’s most prized asset, who reportedly has a £64m release clause that can be activated this summer.
That isn’t a ton of money, to those giant clubs, so the ultimate winner of this derby will be the outfit that can meet his salary demands. ESPN claims that he will demand more than £500,000 per week (or about £30m per year) at his new club.
It’s good to be Erling Haaland, and his agent Mino Raiola, right now. As Haaland himself has already said, things are going to happen.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.