When Erling Haaland and Gabriel Magalhaes line up against each other on July 5 in the World Cup last-16, it won’t just be Norway versus Brazil. It’ll be the latest chapter of a Premier League grudge match that has spilled onto the biggest stage in football, carrying with it a surprisingly active digital asset subplot.
Their club-level battles between Manchester City and Arsenal have defined recent Premier League title races. Now, with a World Cup knockout round on the line, both players carry the weight of their nations. But for crypto markets, the real story is what happens off the pitch: Haaland’s NFT trading activity on Sorare has been climbing as the tournament progresses.
The $678K card and Sorare’s Haaland economy
A rare Haaland NFT card on Sorare, the Ethereum-based fantasy football platform, previously sold for 265.1 ETH. At the time of that 2022 sale, that translated to roughly $678K to $750K, depending on the exact moment of the transaction.
Sorare operates on Ethereum’s blockchain, meaning every Haaland card transaction is verifiable on-chain. The platform has built an entire ecosystem around athlete-linked digital collectibles, and Haaland sits comfortably at the top of the food chain in terms of valuation and trading volume.
