DUBAI: Cristiano Ronaldo and Binance have announced their latest NFT collaboration, unveiling the ‘Forever Worldwide: The Road to Saudi Arabia’ NFT collection. The new NFTs represent Cristiano Ronaldo’s trajectory from humble beginnings in Madeira to becoming a global football icon, providing fans with innovative experiences and incredible real-life rewards.
The ‘Forever Worldwide: The Road to Saudi Arabia’ NFT collection offers fans new insights into the iconic locations that were pivotal in Ronaldo’s career: from Madeira, Lisbon, Manchester, Madrid, Turin, Saudi and Portugal. To create the collection, artists were carefully selected with personal ties to the iconic locations in Cristiano’s career, to contribute their unique design for each NFT.
“I’m excited that this new NFT collection with Binance offers fans pieces of my journey throughout my football story,” said Cristiano Ronaldo. “Each place in ‘Forever Worldwide: The Road to Saudi Arabia’ means a lot to me personally and I can’t wait for fans to see my career’s big moments through this special artwork collection. Working with artists who really capture the feeling from each place makes this experience even more sentimental, and as NFTs, these moments in my journey can live on forever.”
“Cristiano Ronaldo’s incredible journey from humble beginnings to football legend has not only inspired fans around the world but has brought all of us along that incredible ride,” said Sarah Dale, Head of Brand Partnerships at Binance. “To encapsulate this journey, we’ve worked with him to create our most remarkable NFT collection to date with the very best rewards ever offered for sports fans, while giving a platform to incredible talent with personal ties to iconic locations throughout Cristiano’s life. Together, we’re committed to reshaping fan engagement in sports, and this collection does that by opening up new horizons of NFT utility and levels of fan-connections.”
The new NFT collection will launch in two drops during the upcoming football season and will culminate in an auction in June for a limited collection of super super rare (SSR) NFTs. Drop 1 kicked off on May 29th, with iconic locations Madeira, Lisbon, and Manchester. Vibrant artwork from artists Katt Phatt (representing Madeira) and Rodrigo Doin (Lisbon) represents the place where Cristiano Ronaldo’s journey began, offering fans the chance to acquire this critical beginning piece of his footballing history. Drop 1 will also include NFT artwork from Manchester artist, John Sheehan, paying homage to Cristiano Ronaldo’s meteoric rise in Manchester.
Drop 2 will launch on 6 June and includes incredible artwork to represent Madrid, Turin and Saudi. Designs by Spanish artist Lisett Ledón will represent his unprecedented success at Madrid, embodying his passion for the Spanish League, and Pasquale Garibaldi (Italy) articulates his time in Turin, celebrating his legacy in Serie A and Italian football. Finally, Saudi artist Shaker Kashgari designs an NFT to mark Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest and most recent chapter in Saudi Arabia.
Later in June, a very special limited collection of 7 super super rare NFTs will become available. This limited collection of NFTs, designed by local artist Mr. Dheo, pay homage to Cristiano Ronaldo’s unwavering dedication to his home country and will be available to buy via an online auction on 14 – 18 June.
Super-fans that have collected all of the NFTs in the Drop 4 collection will also have the chance to win one of the special SSR NFTs by taking part in a quiz from 11 June.
With a price tag of $35 (USD) across all locations except for the limited SSR NFTs, the collection introduces a ‘Collect to Earn’ mechanism for accessing NFT utilities. This means that collectors can start to earn rewards from the first purchase of a Forever Worldwide NFT, including vintage jerseys, football tickets, signed, printable posters and the chance to submit questions that Cristiano will then answer in a video made especially for those that hold the NFTs.
Given the significance of Portugal to Cristiano Ronaldo, holders of the SSR Portugal NFTs will receive an exclusive experience with Cristiano himself, which includes a trip to Riyadh, a ticket to a football game, followed by a personalized goal celebration moment with Cristiano. To have the chance to access this unique opportunity, collectors can join an auction opening on June 14, where the top four highest bidders will win this super-super rare NFT. Additionally, users who collected all six other NFT locations and who won the SSR Portugal NFT in the quiz, will also be a part of this experience.
The first drop for the ‘Forever Worldwide: The Road to Saudi Arabia’ NFT collection will be available exclusively on the Binance NFT Marketplace or visit Binance’s Forever Zone from May 29, 2024.
“In Saudi Arabia, I am immersing myself in an exciting new chapter, where we are seeing the league here growing a global following and the fans really embrace this new era of football. The fans support has been incredible and my passion for the game is the same as when I started playing football,” said, Cristiano Ronaldo.
