Cristiano Ronaldo is a proud five-time winner of the prestigious Ballon d’Or trophy.
However, one of the trophies was sold at an enormous cost to Israel’s richest man via a charity auction in 2017.
National Daily gathered that Ronaldo’s 2013 Ballon d’Or was sold to Idan Ofer, Israel’s richest man, after a charity auction in London in 2017.
The 37-year-old won the top individual prize on five occasions with the maiden trophy coming in 2008 while still on the books of Manchester United and four times as a Real Madrid player. The 2013 contest was one of the more tightly-fought, with the Portugal star pipping Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery to top honours.
Meanwhile, after the ceremony, the Portuguese had opted to donate the award to charity. It was ultimately auctioned off to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish foundation, and Ofer had the winning bid of an enormous €600,000.
National Daily gathered from the reports at the time from Marca, that Ronaldo specifically asked for an extra replica of his 2013 award to be auctioned for charity, with ESPN further reporting that the real award remained on display at his museum in Madeira. The six-figure sum went straight to the children’s charity, which grants wishes to children affected by critical illness.
A number of other items were also auctioned off at the event in London. These included a meet-and-greet with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and Manchester United’s then-manager Jose Mourinho, which fetched €30,000.
Ofer, who came up with the winning bid for Ronaldo’s trophy, is worth a reported US$9.9bn (£8.1bn) according to Forbes. He has stakes in two football clubs, investing in Atletico Madrid later in 2017 and later taking over as majority owner of Portuguese side Famalicao.
Ronaldo himself was not in attendance at the auction. Instead it was the responsibility of Jorge Mendes, his agent at the time, to hand Ofer his prize.