THE MOST EXPENSIVE FOOTBALL BOOTS IN HISTORY

If your looking for a pair of football boots to lace up at the weekend, this is not the article for you. This is the all star roster of the most expensive football boots ever made and they’re not for gracing the local league pitches.

The idea was Rio Ferdinand’s back in 2010.

He took match worn boots of his then England colleagues Wayne Rooney and John Terry and covered them in jewels, Rio aimed to sell them at auction to raise somewhere around £400,000 for his charity: the Live the Dream Foundation.

The auction took place at a VIP evening hosted by Late Late Show’s James Corden, but there was a huge misjudgment by the organisers, who’d neglected to put a reserve on the footy boots!

This meant that due to lack of interest on the night, the boots went for staggeringly low-prices (in comparison to their estimate!): Rooney’s boots went for £18,000, Terry’s for £20,000 and Ferdinand’s sold for £22,000.

Whilst this mix up meant that the boots were sold for £325,000 less than their estimated value, £60,000 was still raised for charity that night – so Kudos to Rio for raising that great sum for his charity!

John Terry, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand have all donated a pair of boots which have since been transformed into collector’s items. The boots will be auctioned off this Wednesday in front of 1200 people at the launch of Ferdinand’s Live The Dream Foundation, his new charity venture which aims to help underprivileged children.

All together, nearly 7,500 precious stones have been used on the three pairs of football boots which together are valued at £385,000.

On John Terry’s Umbro Speciali’s, which he signed after the 3 – 0 win over Belarus back in October, 2,374 jewels have been used which include 84 black diamonds set in white gold on the tips of the studs.

With 27 carat of white diamonds and 11 carat of sapphires, the boots have been valued at £135,000.

Coming in at £125,000 are the Nike Total 90 Laser II’s as worn by Wayne Rooney in the Premier League.

These are now adorned by 2,576 gems with more than 10 carat of white diamonds and 31 carat of black diamonds, while his famous No 10 is moulded out of rose gold.

And Ferdinand’s boots are also thought to be worth a cool £125,00. They have been customized with spray paint and grafitti-style artwork by film producer and former musician Goldie. The central defender’s No 5 has been in sculptured in rose gold, the laces are gold-tipped, while the boots themselves are covered in 2,494 stones – more than 18 carat of white diamonds, 15 carat of black diamonds and nearly 11 carat of rubies.

Ferdinand said:

This is a chance for me and my England team-mates to do something to help underprivileged children.

I mentioned the idea to John and Wayne when we met up with England and they both agreed to help.

Former fashion model and dancer Luisa Di Marco came up with the idea of designing and creating the world’s most expensive boots and after speaking to Ferdinand’s management company, the boots were commissioned by Embee Jewels of London. Di Marco then set about crafting the boots with top fashion designer Scott Henshall, Goldie and Embee’s craftsmen.

Upon their completion, she said:

The boots took six weeks to complete and the craftsmanship of the Embee jewellers is amazing. The charity is being set up to help children develop careers in sport, entertainment, fashion and media.

Representatives from Guinness World Records will be there when the boots are auctioned. Let’s hope we can raise a lot of money and make it a huge world record.

Images courtesy of the NOTW.