In the past two years, Spain’s biggest football stadiums, such as Camp Nou (Barcelona) or Santiago de Bernabeu (Real Madrid), have undergone major renovations. This is an opportunity for football teams to clear out old equipment and replace it with more modern equipment. However, not everything old in these football stadiums is worthless, quite the opposite.
Both Barcelona and Real Madrid know how to turn old items at home stadiums, many events associated with famous players to auction. From the places where legends have set foot to seats, cabinets,... all are auctioned to collect.
Last November, Real Madrid auctioned off 25 lockers belonging to each player in the dressing room through Sotheby's. The two lockers that sold for the highest prices belonged to players wearing the numbers 9 and 10. Locker number 9 once belonged to Fernando Morientes, Ronaldo, Roberto Soldado, Javier Saviola, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. Locker number 10 once belonged to Luis Figo, Robinho, Wesley Sneijder, Lassana Diarra, Mesut Özil, James Rodriguez and Luka Modric. Both lockers were used for 21 years, from 2001 to 2022. Each locker was auctioned for $24,000.
At auction last year, the highest-priced item from Real Madrid was a mosaic of the club's crest at the entrance to the dressing room. It went for $45,000.
Barcelona also had a similar auction to Real Madrid, including 28 personal lockers and some items at the old Camp Nou stadium. Barca even auctioned off two patches of grass with penalty kicks painted on them at both goals, carefully wrapped them up and put them on the auction floor.
The auction of Barcelona items ends on February 12, 2024. The most valuable item is related to Lionel Messi, which is the wardrobe and bench he used at Camp Nou. As of now, it has been valued at $336,000. The next most valuable items are the wardrobes of Gerard Pique, Pep Guardiola and Diego Maradona, all of which are valued at $158,600.
Thus, the value of Messi's wardrobe used at Camp Nou is much greater than Ronaldo's at Bernabeu. The reason for this, apart from some arguments that Messi is better than Ronaldo, must also be considered in terms of playing time and symbolic value for the club. Messi grew up in La Masia, spent more than 20 years with Blaugrana and won all the most brilliant glories for the club. Meanwhile, Ronaldo only stayed with Real Madrid for 9 years (from 2009 - 2018). Besides CR7, there are countless other shining stars in the galaxy at Bernabeu. As for Messi, he is always number 1, creating a huge gap with the rest in terms of reputation in the club.
The auction record for a locker belongs to basketball legend Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers). It was auctioned at Staples Center (USA) for 2.9 million USD. This is the locker Kobe used from 2003 - 2016. According to Sotheby's, the value of Kobe Bryant's locker increased by 750,000 USD in just the last 2 hours of the closing session.
