The Spanish club, FC Barcelona, sold the first of their 10-piece NFT collection at Sotheby’s in New York on Friday. The 40-second clip entitled, In a Way, Immortal, recalls the legendary Johan Cruyff, who was both a player and coach at the club. The hammer came down for the last time at $550,000. Sotheby’s fees increased the final sale price to 693,000 dollars.
The auction took place at Sotheby’s in New York and simultaneously at Times Square.
The first digital art piece depicts Cruyff’s memorable goal versus another football club Atlético Madrid, at the Nou Camp in December 1973. The flying acrobatic goal is one of Cruyff’s most iconic goals (of which there are many).
The 40-second video shows an animated Cruyff covered in molten gold, flying through the air to meet the ball. The main NFT or non-fungible token is accompanied by four further NFTs, which are stills of the animated clip.
According to a statement by the club, the graphics for the NFT were created “in collaboration with BCN Visuals, a strategic innovation partner and Digital Superstudio that developed the NFT’s cinematographic aesthetic.”
The graphics for the whole collection took over 10,000 hours to complete, with the Johan Cruyff NFT taking more than 1000 hours to create.
What utilities does the digital art piece depicting Cruyff have?
The lucky NFT buyer is in for some huge utilities with various VIP benefits. The first is the owner becomes a digital ambassador for the club. Other utilities include meet and greets before games, seats in the VIP section, hospitality rights, entry to training sessions, the right to play at the Spotify Camp Nou stadium and the official ball before a friendly match hand, and more.
10 Barcelona NFTs
The iconic Johan Cruyff goal is only the first digital art piece depicting the club’s history and heritage. The club plan to release 9 more over the coming months. The NFTs are part of Barcelona’s strategy for adopting emerging technology to educate and inspire millennial, xennial and generation Z supporters.
The legendary Johan Cruyff
Many people regard Netherlands legend Cruyff as one of football’s greatest players. He played for Barca from 1972 to 1978, winning the Balloon D’Or two times. He later returned to the club as a coach in 1988. During his time as manager, he won 4 league titles and Barcelona’s first-ever European Cup.
Other Clubs and Players are joining the NFT sphere
Barcelona is one of many clubs and players to release NFTs and enter the Metaverse. Stars like Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have released NFTs. Whilst Kylian Mbappe has invested in Sorare fantasy football manager NFT game. Another notable is Manchester City, which has partnered with Sony to build a replica of their stadium in the Metaverse.
Afterthoughts
FC Barcelona is arguably the most famous football club in the world, so we expected a lot of interest. However, the news that the final sale price of 693,000 dollars came as a surprise to many.
Johan Cruyff is only one of a long list of football greats to play for the Catalan team, with Argentinian Lionel Messi and Brazilians Ronaldinho and Ronaldo recent greats. It will be interesting to see who else is part of the NFT collection.
What are your thoughts? Who else do you think, should be included in the Barcelona digital collection?
