Ultra rare Panini card of Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo sells for £60,000 at auction

A mint-condition ultra-rare Panini card of Cristiano Ronaldo, from his days when he was just a teenager at Sporting Lisbon, has sold at an auction in the United States for £60,000.

When the photo was taken of the youngster, he wasn’t known in the footballing world, and probably most Lisbon fans would’ve been largely unaware of Ronaldo status in the team.

The auction, held in New Jersey, managed to fetch a whopping £60,000, due to both the rarity of the card and the fact it was described as being in ‘mint condition’.

Many cards that date back to when this one was produced were either destroyed or discarded, and it is believed only around 200 from this era still exist, adding more to their value.

The card was produced during the 2002-2003 season, the same campaign when the lean winger made his debut for Sporting Lisbon, and a mere months before that famous game against Manchester United.

A pre-season friendly against Sir Alex Ferguson’s superstars left the team consisting of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs to name a few, left them stunned at the sheer talent of the then-youngster, who ran Gary Neville ragged all those years ago.

The game happened in August 2003, with Ronaldo playing a starring role in the 3-1 dismantling of United, who were preparing for a title race back in England.

Ronaldo, who was being closely watched by Arsenal and Barcelona then, became the immediate interest of United, with Sir Alex dubbing the Portuguese winger ‘the most exciting young player he had ever seen’ and then parted company with £12 million to bring him to Manchester.

The rest is history, as Ronaldo has since gone on to win five Balon d’Ors, and scored the most amount of goals in football history, cementing his time as an all-time great.