These hideous $6,400 custom iPhones prove soccer players have no taste

Custom gold iPhones in boxes
(Image credit: MailOnline)

It's probably fair to say that the multi-millionaire soccer players at Manchester City can afford the best iPhones without too much trouble. But what do you do when you've more money than taste? You buy a custom iPhone that looks like it came from Wish.

The custom handsets in question appear to be iPhone 14 Pros, and were handed out to members of the Manchester City team, as well as manager Pepe Guardiola, and the club's owner, by Belgian star Kevin De Bruyne. Each has the recipient's name and the club's logo engraved on the back.

The iPhones were created by iDesign Gold, a company that De Bruyne says he has been working with for years. Maybe the company gave him a discount.

Is that white gold?

While the MailOnline report doesn't confirm what the iPhones are made of, it appears to be white gold — it's surely not silver given the price and the iDesign Gold company name.

Ben Lyons, iDesign Gold CEO, and creative director told MailOnline that 'our vision is to empower individuals to embrace their individuality, express their unique style and make a bold statement in the digital world which is why we were honored to work with Kevin."

The iPhones were handed out to commemorate City's impressive achievement of winning the Premier League, Champions League, and the FA Cup in the same season. 

De Bruyne isn't the first to hand out gold iPhones of course. Argentinian world cup winner and new MLS star Lionel Messi did the same earlier this year to celebrate his country's success in Qatar.

Manchester City players with custom iPhones

(Image credit: MailOnline)

Whether or not you like how these custom iPhones look — and make no mistake, they're horrid — there's no denying that they're going to be out of date in a matter of weeks.

The new iPhone 15 Pro will join the iPhone 15 models as soon as next month, with an announcement event likely to happen on September 12.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.