The unique Lionel Messi World Cup 2022 sticker is being sold for a staggering sum

A UNIQUE Lionel Messi 2022 World Cup sticker has sold for £115,000.

It was the only one that framed the Argentine soccer star with a black border.

1

Henry Barrios found it among 300 packs of Paninis he bought in September.

The American realized 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, the rarer fringes were blue, red, purple, and green.

All players only had one with a black frame, with the Messi sticker being the most coveted.

For the 2022 World Cup, Panini has decided to release a limited number of stickers for all 600 players with different colored borders alongside the standard white outlines.

It was sold at Goldin Auctions, New Jersey.

A spokesman said: “It was a very lucky find.”

A 1980’s Panini sticker by Diego Maradona sold for a record £470,000 in 2021.

This broke the previous record for a 1958 Pele sticker, which sold for £237,000 in 2020.

Last year a Panini sticker of a young Cristiano Ronaldo from his days at Sporting Lisbon in 2002 sold for almost £60,000.