Israel’s richest man, Idan Ofer, has been revealed as the buyer of one of Cristiano Ronaldo’s five Ballon d’Or trophies.
According to reports, Ofer bought the 2013 highly coveted trophy for €600,000 through a charity auction in London in 2017.
Ronaldo, who recently joined Al Nassr, won the top individual prize on five occasions, first in 2008 while still on the books of Manchester United and four times as a Real Madrid player.
The 2013 contest was one of the more tightly-fought, with the Portugal star pipping Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery to top honours.
After the ceremony, Ronaldo opted to donate the award to charity. It was ultimately auctioned off to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish foundation, and Israel’s richest man, Idan Ofer, had the winning bid of €600,000, Mirror reports.
Ofer, who came up with the winning bid for Ronaldo’s trophy, is worth a reported US$9.9bn (£8.1bn) according to Forbes. He has stakes in two football clubs, investing in Atletico Madrid later in 2017 and later taking over as majority owner of Portuguese side Famalicao.
Ronaldo himself was not in attendance at the auction. Instead it was the responsibility of Jorge Mendes, his agent at the time, to hand Ofer his prize.
