Three essential Cristiano Ronaldo cards
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More than two decades into his legendary playing career, global icon Cristiano Ronaldo remains an essential part of the hobby. His goal-scoring exploits, and overflowing trophy cabinet, combined with one of the most electrifying skill sets in the history of the world's most popular sport, ensure that when it comes to soccer trading cards, Ronaldo is going nowhere. As the Portuguese superstar continues to roll on to a potential 2026 World Cup Finals appearance, let's take a look at some of the cards that define Cristiano Ronaldo in the hobby.
2003 Panini Sports Mega Craques #137 Cristiano Ronaldo RC
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Ronaldo's 2003 Panini Sports Mega Craques remains the top rookie card of the player who began his career as a prodigy at Sporting Lisbon and would go on to win the Ballon d'Or five times. Per Card Ladder, nine of the top ten Cristiano Ronaldo sales of all-time are for this card, with the top price coming in at $312,000 in 2021.
Most recently, a BGS 9.5 version of this card sold for $36,000 on July 24. A BGS 7.5 fetched $6,000 the day before, and a BGS 4 pulled in $2,500 on the same day.
2014 Panini Prizm World Cup #161 Cristiano Ronaldo
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Cristiano Ronaldo has put together one of the greatest individual international soccer careers of all-time. In addition to leading Portugal to the 2016 UEFA European Championship, the striker has scored 138 goals for his nation in 221 appearances. No men's player has ever appeared for their country more than Ronaldo, who made his debut for Portugal way back in 2003.
This 2014 Panini Prizm World Cup card remains one of the most important Ronaldo cards in the hobby. It is the first Prizm card of the Portuguese captain. A PSA 10 version of the card, numbered to 10, is the most recent six-figure Ronaldo sale, per Card Ladder, selling through Fanatics Collect for $162,000 on Mar. 21 of this year.
2017 Topps Chrome UCL #93 Cristiano Ronaldo
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Speaking of brand debuts, Cristiano Ronaldo made his Topps Chrome UCL bow in the 2017/18 set, which also featured the first Topps Chrome UCL card of fellow GOAT and longtime rival, Lionel Messi. This PSA 9 sold through Goldin in 2022 for just over $31,000.
The card is an important piece of soccer hobby history, capturing Ronaldo as he dominated the UEFA Champions League, as the superstar and his Real Madrid team would take home the trophy in 2017/18, for the fourth time in five seasons.
Michael Terry is a writer based in Brooklyn. He specializes in sports, culture, and collecting. His work has appeared at Topps RIPPED, ESPN, Grantland, Vice Sports, and more.
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