Ex Sports launches first official Maradona NFT crypto art collection

Maradona was an Argentine professional football player and manager. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the 20th-century award.

An NFT is a form of crypto asset which uses blockchain to record the ownership status of digital objects, such as images, videos, and text.

On October 30, four Platinum NFTs were auctioned during a VIP-only event at the DMCC Crypto Centre in Dubai. The winning bidders were given ownership of some one-of-a-kind Maradona items, including —signed Argentina shirt from the 1986 World Cup in Mexico,  ST Dupont pen he used to sign his contract with Italian club Napoli in 1984, the best player trophy he was awarded by El Mundo at the FIFA Youth World Cup in 1979. In total, the items sold for $79,000.

It should be noted that the name and usage rights of the Maradona brand have been legally authorised by Maradona’s former manager and close friend, Stefano Ceci.

EX Sports is now providing fans to own one of the remaining six items of Maradona memorabilia. The collection includes a match-worn Napoli jersey, a ball used in a game between Napoli and Spartak Moscow, and a Puma-branded captain’s armband.

“Blockchain is about giving access to the smaller guys,” says Toli Makris, CEO of EX Sports. “This campaign is a good example of how we can accomplish that.”

Interestingly, sports NFTs are quite the buzz— today’s card collectors have shifted their attention to sports NFTs, that offer proof of unique ownership of a video, photo, or other digital capture of an important moment in sports history.

Earlier, in August, Lionel Messi had launched his own collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), crypto art that was created with his image by digital designer BossLogic. “Art is like football. Eternal,” Messi said on his Twitter account announcing the launch.

People have spent over $9 billion in NFT sales so far—and total NFT sales are expected to reach $17.7 billion by the end of the year, according to new research by Cointelegraph.