UPDATE: THE MOST EXPENSIVE FOOTBALL BOOTS IN HISTORY?

23rd March 2010
in: Football Boots,Football News,John Terry,Nike Football Boots,Umbro Football Boots,Wayne Rooney

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Any long-time Footy-Boots.com readers might remember we ran a story a few months ago on Rio Ferdinand’s charity auction for ‘the most expensive boots ever’.

The idea being, that by taking match worn boots of his England colleagues Wayne Rooney and John Terry and covering 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 this weekend at a VIP evening hosted by Gavin & Stacey comedian James Corden, but there was a huge misjudgment by the organisers, who’d negelected to put a reserve on the 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!

Here’s what we said originally – Estimates and all:

John Terry, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand have all donated a pair of boots which have since been transformed into collectors 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.

john terry umbro speciali most expensive boots

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.

wayne rooney total 90 laser ii most expensive boots

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.

rio ferdinand total 90 most expensive boots

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.

rio ferdinand live the dream foundation

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.

For more information visit rioferdinandltdf.com

Images courtesy of the NOTW.

21 Comments

JamieB
December 14, 2009
10:26 am

if i bought them, stupidly i would go for a kick in them. haha. couldnt resist.

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kuuku
December 14, 2009
10:32 am

What an idea…take some boots and throw a bunch of expensive gems and metals on them to make them expensive.

I think I will buy a pair to play with in pick-up matches with my mates. Just 125,000? No problem.

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Delmin
December 14, 2009
10:42 am

Rio comes up with some stupid ideas.

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Kyle
December 14, 2009
11:26 am

Wait – you mean there’s been a boot with loads of unnecessary flash attached to it that doesn’t say it’s suppose to increase “Power, Swerve & Control”?

STOP THE PRESSES!!

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Mike
December 14, 2009
3:51 pm

Way to ruin a perfectly good set of boots! How about you just donate the money to charity instead of making some boots look silly.

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Steven Jordan FGA DGA
December 14, 2009
5:05 pm

Fantastic boots.
The workmanship and design is outstanding.
I should know, I was the valuer.

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Steven Jordan
December 14, 2009
5:09 pm

Great boots, fantastic design.
I should know I had to count and assess every gemstone before reaching the value.
Great idea Rio, good luck for Wednesday.

Steven Jordan
Valuer
Assay Office London
Goldsmiths’ Hall

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Delmin
December 14, 2009
5:12 pm

I think if the boots were designed better then they would be ‘worth’ more.

The numbers on the front look like some belt buckle that’s been bought from a Surprise Surprise in the West End

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Splinter09
December 14, 2009
6:16 pm

@Mike I couldn’t agree with you more buddy. But as it is for a good cause I’ll forgive them.

@ All Professional Footballers – Great example to follow there. But please make your charitable football boots a little prettier than these ones. lol

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martincillo
December 14, 2009
7:09 pm

i want two pairs, one fg and another sg =P ahhahaa just kidding

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Marco
December 14, 2009
8:02 pm

The only thing making a boot expensive is a magnificent player wearing them.

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Mike
December 14, 2009
8:34 pm

@Splinter09 I forgive them too as it does go towards a good cause. It just doesn’t seem to have the class I would associate with these players. It’s just too much.

Imagine the food and clothes, not to mention football boots, you could buy for these underpriviledged kids with that kind of money! I like the idea of selling their memorabilia for charity but surely you could just sign several items and run a lottery or something.

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nikhil
December 14, 2009
11:57 pm

i want them,i have a massive 2 a side game to be played on a hard cement ground.atleast when i wear them they will have a little worth

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Meji
December 15, 2009
1:30 pm

I’m with the rest of you on forgiving them because it’s for charity. But come on…the design is lacking seriously.

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cr7wonka
December 15, 2009
10:28 pm

those boots dont look good at all

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footballers
December 17, 2009
10:38 pm

“design is lacking seriously”, you speak the truth. The shoes are simple regular football boots anyone can buy from JD Sports with a bunch of stones and badges stuck to them. For the amount of money they wanted the shoes should have been totally bespoke and not a stock pair. These shoes are no different than a badly pimped car, cheap looking and bad taste. I don’t believe for one moment the valuation is correct. I’m not surprised they sold for a fraction of the valuation Ã‚Â£18,000. LOL

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footballers
December 17, 2009
10:51 pm

What a load of crap, standard football boots with removable badges stuck to them, a child could have made these. Not surprised they only sold for Ã‚Â£18,000. I guess they buyer will remove the stones, flog them and use the boots for what they are intended for. Really moronic idea!

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Steven Regent
December 19, 2009
7:20 pm

The boots have no value, the gems and precious metals glued onto them is where the value is, if you want to design expensive boots use the materials that make the boots such as the studs and the body or laces or lace eyes, for the value, imagination please ! not sticking stones onto them as a child would stick seashells and glitter onto a piece of paper. Pathetic, absolute farce, and in this day and age an obscene gesture of extravagance linked to what is supposed to be a humble charity. I cannot express how disgusted i am at the blatant self promotion of the people involved rather than the charity itself. Karma ensured these sold for peanuts and are now confined to the dustbin of PR.

Worlds most expensive football boots, definitely not, The most expensive way to ruin a good pair of football boots more like.

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murat
December 19, 2009
7:52 pm

i was thinking of something more…wearable?i mean not collector’s items but mass production boots priced for about, say, 850 pounds max. and i agree with steven regent.

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Steven Regent
December 20, 2009
10:42 am

It’s like getting a huge diamond and gluing it onto the roof of a Ã‚Â£50 car and then saying “Worlds most expensive car” – Staggering !

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mask off
January 7, 2010
10:32 pm

love the design, love the work, in fact thats some of the bestcraftsmanship ive ever see, especially the wings at the back…..superb!!!

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