Past performance is no guarantee of future results. You’d have thought that few people would understand this better than Michael Owen. The former Liverpool and England striker shot to prominence as a teenage sensation – thanks to wonder-goals like the one he scored against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup – only to then struggle with injuries and never quite fulfil his early promise.
Now he has become the latest famous name to launch his own range of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, a type of digital asset based on the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin.
It would be hard to think of a better example of how frothy the whole crypto sector has become (although the soon-to-be launched Mr Bean NFTs come a close second).
Lucky fans will soon be able to buy unique digital clips of Owen’s goals with commentary from the man himself. Owen claims his NFTs, issued in partnership with a company called Oceidon, “can’t lose their initial value”. Needless to say, that’s a bold claim.
Indeed it’s one that’s somewhat contradicted by Oceidon’s T&Cs: “We do not make any representations of any kind that the value of any products or assets ... bought or sold on Oceidon ecosystem ... will retain the value of its original purchase price or attain any future value.”
