Solid gold Lionel Messi left foot worth £3.5m

Barcelona star Lionel Messi is often hailed as the greatest player ever to have lived and his successes on the football pitch mean people will always want a piece of him.

It turns out some lucky person can almost get exactly that – as long as they are prepared to pay a small fee in the region of £3.5million.

Paying that would get you a solid gold replica of Lionel Messi’s left foot, created by Japanese jeweler Ginza Tanaka to commemorate the Argentina star’s 91 goals in 2012.

Tanaka took the mould of Messi’s left foot at the end of last year and his solid 25kg of work is available for four months from Thursday.

If the main piece is a touch too dear for you, there are still chances to own some gold moulded on Messi’s foot.

The Golden Foot has a relative in the "Golden Foot Plate", which is a 300g solid gold (of course) imprint of the same Messi foot but is framed and has an engraved autograph from the Camp Nou superstar, available for only £63,000.

It doesn’t end there, oh no, as there is even an option for those that are unable to reach such financial heights; the “Golden Foot Mini” is half the size of the original and can be purchased for only £28000.

Tanaka unveiled the piece at an event in Tokyo but the Lionel Messi could not be there and his brother, Rodrigo, was there in his stead.

However, Messi did leave a video message for the unveiling where he revealed the honour he felt at having his left foot made into gold.

You can see the message from Messi at The Golden Foot website, as well as a ‘making of’ video that shows how Tanaka constructed his creation.