Lionel Messi ordered 24K gold iPhone 14 Pros for all his World Cup teammates

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Following on from Argentina’s historic soccer World Cup win in Qatar, Lionel Messi has purchased 35 24K gold iPhone 14 Pros for his teammates and staff.

The iPhones, created by custom iPhone designer, iDesign Gold, are encapsulated in 24K gold enclosures with the Argentina national football team emblem alongside each individual player’s name and number. The order, for 35 devices looks to have cost Messi somewhere in the region of $160,000 just months away from the reveal of Apple’s new best iPhone, the iPhone 15.

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Argentina won the 2022 men’s soccer World Cup in December, after defeating France on penalties following a 3-3 tie in overtime. Messi received the Golden Ball award in Qatar as the best player in the tournament. This historic win was the first World Cup victory for who many believe is the greatest soccer player of all time.

The owner of iDesign Gold, Ben Lyons, hand-delivered the set of iPhones to Messi, who recently won Best Men’s Player at The Best FIFA Football Awards. iDesign Gold is no stranger to creating custom gold iPhones for famous soccer players with PSG’s Kylian Mbappé and Neymar just some of its famous clientele.

Does custom mean better?

For us mere mortals, you can pre-order a gold-plated custom iPhone 14 Pro starting from £4000, around $4800. If gold is too bling for your liking, the company also offers black and gold, white and gold, rose gold, platinum as well as leather designs — although I’m quite happy with my subtle Deep Purple on my iPhone 14 Pro Max.

There is to be said that Apple’s own gold color on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, whilst not real gold, could be seen as the classier option, although if you’re one of the world’s greatest soccer players you probably exude class regardless of the color of your iPhone.

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019. John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.