Wayne Rooney is selling digital artwork of himself for £40 each for his dedicated fanbase – and his NFT’s are looking seriously serious.
Something brewing in the sporting world might be all over your screen very soon. Blockassest has created an athlete-verified NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) ecosystem for sporting phenomena worldwide.
Why? The 2019/2020 soccer season in Europe had an estimated market size of 25.2 billion U.S. dollars alone.
Wayne Rooney is, you’d presume, one of a kind. Over the years, he’s had more hair transplants than we’ve had hot dinners, been compared to Shrek and is famously known for his smug severe facial expression.
All the while, he was the face of English football, as he made his way up the ranks at Manchester United and the national squad before making his move back to childhood club Everton.
As of 2022, Wayne Rooney’s net worth is “roughly $170 million”, making him one of the wealthiest soccer players in the world, according to Wealthy Gorilla.
The former Man United star is the latest celeb to deal in digital artwork known as NFTs – Non-Fungible Tokens.
He recently said in a Twitter post:
“Very excited to announce that I am now a partner in Blockasset. Follow Blockasset for full updates on my upcoming NFTs as part of the Legends generative NFT collection.”
Why do I feel like this Twitter video is how his fans reacted after the announcement?
Fans who pick up the unique NFTs will be hoping they increase in value – but like everything in this digital metaverse, it still holds a massive risk.
To promote the new partnership with Blockasset, the 36-year-old Derby boss has even made a switcheroo of his Twitter profile picture to a very smug-looking portrait of him, holding a ball whilst wearing a black hoodie with ‘Gaffer’ written on the front.
NFTs are nothing new. In fact, can you believe NFTs have been around since 2014? However, 2021 was the first year that this novel technology broke through into the mainstream, disrupting the art world and industries beyond it.
Over the past 12 months, the NFT scene has evolved rapidly.
“It is inspired by childhood memories of opening sports cards and stickers, not knowing which athlete you’ll land”
– Wayne Rooney
The images, similar to The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s concept, are made up of a series of various portraits, each with different facial expressions whilst holding other props.
Wayne Rooney may be a sporting legend, but would you pay £40 for one of these?
SEE MORE: Talk Of The Town | Are We Heading Into An NFT Crash?