A UNIQUE Lionel Messi 2022 World Cup sticker has sold for £115,000.
It was the only one framing the Argentina footballing great with a black border.
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Henry Barrios found it among 300 Panini packs he bought in September.
The American realised it was the sticker world’s equivalent of the holy grail — and put it up for sale when Argentina won the tournament last year.
After white, less common borders were blue, red, purple and green.
All players had just one with a black frame, with the Messi sticker the most sought-after.
For the 2022 World Cup Panini decided to issue a limited number of stickers for all 600 players with different coloured borders to go alongside the standard white outlines.
It sold at Goldin Auctions, New Jersey.
A spokesman said: “It was a very lucky find.”
A 1980 Panini sticker of Diego Maradona sold for a record £470,000 in 2021.
That beat the previous record for a Pele sticker from 1958 that sold for £237,000 in 2020.
Last year a Panini sticker of a young Cristiano Ronaldo from his time at Sporting Lisbon in 2002 sold for almost £60,000.
