AI-Generated Artwork of Lionel Messi's Iconic Goal Fetches $1.87M at Christie's Auction

Digital artwork of Lionel Messi's favorite goal sold for $1.87M to mystery buyer

A Goal in Life: Messi x Refik Anadol, the artwork created by world renowned artist Refik Anadol using artificial intelligence, and inspired by global soccer star Lionel Messi's favorite goal, was auctioned at Christie's for $1.87 million on Tuesday. The auction house has not disclosed the identity of the buyer. All proceeds from the auction will benefit the Inter Miami Foundation, which plans to use the funds to support a variety of charitable initiatives. This includes a partnership with UNICEF aimed at enhancing education programs in Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti. In an exclusive interview with The Athletic before the auction, Anadol expressed his hope the sculpture won't disappear into private hands. "This isn't just a collaboration between two people, it's a dialogue between two disciplines," he said. "It's not artist meets artist; it's sport meets art. And that's what makes it so fresh and powerful." Anadol spent several weeks creating this one of a kind digital art project using machine and AI to reconstruct Messi's most personal favorite goal in 3D, effectively bringing a 16-year-old memory into the present with technology that didn't exist in 2009. The goal itself was a masterpiece. In 2009, a 22-year-old Messi was playing for Pep Guardiola's Barcelona against Manchester United, facing his future arch-rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, only weeks before the Portuguese star's move to Real Madrid that summer. In the 70th minute of the Champions League final in Rome's Stadio Olumpico, with Barcelona already up 1-0, Xavi Hernández floated a pinpoint cross into the box. Despite standing just 5 ft 7 in (1.65 meters) tall, Messi (nicknamed La Pulga, "the Flea" in English for his small stature,) rose above the towering 6'2" Rio Ferdinand and met the ball with a perfectly timed header, sending it curling into the far corner of the net. He leapt so high his boot flew off, but it didn't matter. With arms outstretched and a grin of disbelief, Messi celebrated a goal that would go down in history. "It's hard to choose just one, there have been so many," Messi told the crew who interviewed him a few months ago in an interview that has not been shared with the public until now. "That goal is my favorite," he smiled. "It was the most beautiful and unique, because it was a header, I jumped really high, which is rare for me," he explained. "To see a work of art born from Messi's most cherished goal not only captivate thousands of visitors but also generate vital support for children's education across Latin America and the Caribbean is profoundly moving," Ximena Caminos, the curator who facilitated the collaboration, said in a statement after the auction. "This sale is a testament to the power of art, technology, and sport to create real-world impact. We hope this is just the beginning -- that many more around the world will have the chance to experience this emotional, immersive journey into memory, movement, and meaning." Anadol's work has been on display at Christie's New York in Rockefeller Center since July 12, coinciding with Christie's 10th Art+Tech Summit Over ten days, thousands of soccer fans, collectors and art lovers experienced the artwork in person according to Sebastian Sanchez, Christie's manager of digital sales. The bid started at $1.5million (£1.1m). This is not Anadol's first charity sale. Three years ago, Christie's sold another mutant digital sculpture he created inspired by Gaudí's Casa Batlló for $1,380,000. A few years later, in 2024 a collection of six shirts worn by Lionel Messi during the 2022 World Cup became the most expensive sports memorabilia sold that year after being bought at auction for $7.8million (£6.1m). In terms of the future of A Goal in Life, the public displays ended with the auction. The buyer of this one of a kind 20 feet by 12 feet digital art piece will be able to work with the artist's studio to install the piece wherever they choose, providing their own hardware.

How a Lionel Messi goal became an epic AI art installation

Here in Buenos Aires, Lionel Messi appears in probably more artwork than any other living person, from giant murals to the 3D-printed statue on the colourful Caminito in La Boca. But Christie's in New York has just auctioned a much more high-tech immortalisation of Argentina's living legend. Refik Anadol's A Goal in Life doesn't seek to capture Messi in paint or resin but in data and biometric signals. Aiming to recreate the experience of a single goal, it pushes the boundaries of AI art as a representation of sensations (for more on the current state of AI in creative fields, see our AI in Focus week). In collaboration with Inter Miami CF, Anadol asked Messi to choose his favorite goal from his career to date. From the more than 870 he's scored for clubs and country, he chose his header for Barcelona against Manchester United in the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final. Anadol's team then set about recreating that moment. They created nine AI algorithms, including a motion-tracking framework that mapped seventeen points of Messi's body to reconstruct his physical form and kinetic expression. One of the scenes has 3.2 million tracking points. Messi's voice data, breathing rhythms and heartbeat patterns were also tracked, while an emotional algorithm was created using input from interviews. "We had to take this two dimensional memory, captured from different angles, and reconstruct the movement itself in three dimensions," Anadol says. The result is an immersive eight-minute 16K-resolution visual portal and soundscape inspired by the footballer's physical and emotional state at the moment he scored the goal. Anadol describes the piece as the 'art of going back in time and space' via a 'memory temple' that invites the viewer to give themselves up to the moment to experience a visceral connection with Messi and with their own memory of a legendary sporting moment. Proceeds from the sale of A Goal in Life will go to various nonprofits, including Inter Miami CF Foundation's partnership with UNICEF. Anadol's piece is a reminder that the concept of 'AI art' is a lot broader than just text-based image generators like Adobe's amusing Fantasy Premier League logo generator. Going back to the 1960s, there's a long tradition of digital artists creating their own bespoke machine learning algorithms to create artworks influenced by data. See our piece on the history of AI art.