February 5 – With Barcelona’s home, the Camp Nou, going through a major renovation, parts of the stadium, and more specifically locker room items, are being auctioned off.
All 28 individual player lockers are falling under the hammer, including the two penalty spots from the final match before the renovation began, which are encased in lucite. However, for real aficionados and memorabilia collectors, the holy grail is Argentine and Barca GOAT, Lionel Messi’s locker.
With the auction due to end on February 12, the bidding for the locker and bench has reached an eye-watering mark of $366,000. To give that number some context, the locker that was used by Gerard Pique, Pep Guardiola and Diego Maradona is currently valued at $158,600.
“FC Barcelona has millions of fans around the world and these items represent the history, talent, and spirit of the club – they’ve been part of the journey to greatness for so many legends of the sport,” said Ken Goldin, founder and CEO of Goldin when the auction was first announced in January. “We’re honoured to bring these one-of-a-kind pieces to Barça fans, for the very first time.”
The idea of selling stadium memorabilia is not a new one as Barca’s long-time rivals, Real Madrid, auctioned off items from the Santiago Bernabeu when renovations took place in the Spanish capital.
While locker sales don’t usually move the needle, over in Saudi Arabia, they’ll be a certain amount of teeth gnashing as Cristiano Ronaldo’s locker fetched a paltry £19,200 ($23,973) when under auction last November.
The record for a locker sale resides in the United States where former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who tragically passed away in 2020, had his locker auction fetch $2.9 million in 2023.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1738751690labto1738751690ofdlr1738751690owedi1738751690sni@o1738751690fni1738751690