Juliens Auctions, A California based auction firm has reported that they have auctioned a winners medal of a anonymous french footballer from World Cup 2018 winning team.
I think if auction was for charity the event would be public and seller wonât be anonymous. A lot of buzz would be created around it for the benefit of player as well as the cause. I guess the auction was for profit and not charity.
Virat Kohli donated some undisclosed amount to PM Relief Fund and other charity as financial support for COVID19.
This could be a similar intended selfless gesture by a French WC2018 footballer.
In the Twitter age, itâs difficult to predict the netizens reaction, it could be very supportive of the playerâs sentiments or it could fire back with trolls & the gesture could have probably been misunderstood. So, keeping the player identity secret might have been a well thought out action.
Another theory could be that the player himself is in financial distress and needs some money. Obviously, one wouldnât want to disclose the name in such a situation.
Sports Illustrated once estimated that 78 percent of NFL players are either bankrupt or under financial stress within 2 years of retirement, 60 percent of NBA players and similar large percentage of MLB players are broke within 5 years of leaving the sport.
Pele explained : âHaving donated a significant portion of my collection to the City of Santos, I have decided to allow fans and collectors to own a piece of my history as wellâ.
âI hope they treasure these artifacts and share my story with their children and generations to come. I will also be donating a portion of the proceeds from the auction to Pequeno Principe, the largest pediatric hospital in Brazil.â