Every year, the French newspaper L’Équipe awards the Ballon d’Or to the footballers who performed best during the season. Usually the prize consists of a small gold ball that the winners can display in the trophy cabinet.
Now it is 2022 and digitization is being reminded. In addition to the trophy, the players will now also be rewarded with NFTs, digital tokens which are a kind of crypto-art, writes L’Equipe.
These are given free to the winners and are then to be sold in hundreds to the public.
The crypto sector has been in decline and the valuation of the currencies and assets such as NFT objects has dropped drastically. Even so, L’Equipe announces that the digital art is a big part of the Ballon d’Or’s long-term strategy.
— The first collection will be followed by several others, says the media group according to the AFP news agency.
Three NFTs will be auctioned off in advance, which will give buyers “VIP access” to the gala held on October 17th. Subsequently, hundreds more will be made available for sale.
French superstar Karim Benzema is the favorite to win the award on the men’s side. Fittingly, he launched his own NFT collection earlier this year.