Ronaldo Panini card sells for a whopping £60,000 

An ultra-rare Cristiano Ronaldo Panini card of the forward making his debut for Sporting Lisbon has sold for a staggering £60,000 at an American auction, according to the Daily Mail.

The card, which has been kept in mint condition since its inception in the 2002-03 season, depicts a fresh-faced young Ronaldo armed with a stern expression ahead of his debut for the Portuguese giants.

Panini - the Italian card collectable company - initially produced a vast number of the cards marking Ronaldo's first professional run-out but these days only around 200 are said to still remain, according to the Daily Mail.

And of those 200, only 20 are in impeccable condition, the Mail reported.

The scarcity of the cards is what is thought to have driven the value up to the mind blowing figure.

But collectors at Goldin auctioneers of New Jersey, United States, weren't bothered about the staggering price hike - and one lucky punter left with Ronaldo's card in tow after a bidding frenzy on Sunday night.

Another reason why the American bidders were so eager to get their hands on the coveted card - is that it was initially exclusively produced for the Portuguese market. 

Speaking on the Manchester United forward's card sale, Jamie Salt, director of Goldin, said: "This card features one of the greatest players of all time in his earliest officially licensed trading card, otherwise known in the industry as a "true rookie card.

"It was part of a set exclusively produced in Italy for the Portuguese market only.

"Not many examples of this card will have survived through the years, with many people throwing away or burning them and even less copies would have survived in mint condition.

"Only around 200 examples of this card have been graded by Professional Sports Authenticator.

"This card is just one of 22 copies in existence to have been given the Gem Mint 10 by PSA, meaning it is practically flawless."

A second Panini card of Ronaldo after he joined United from Sporting Lisbon for £12million also exists.

This card - which shows the now 37-year-old attacker going through the paces while training for the Red Devils during his first spell at the club - was worth just under £4,000 last year.

And going by how much the first Ronaldo card just sold for, it's highly likely the second edition will also bring in an astronomical amount.

But the collectable cards are nowhere near how much Ronaldo's worth in real life.

Since leaving Lisbon to conquer the world with United, Juventus, Real Madrid, and again with the Red Devils who he re-joined last summer - Ronaldo's amassed a huge estimated net worth of £367m, SunSport revealed.