3 Soccer Players Who Have Embraced Crypto
Soccer stars have been some of the biggest names to endorse cryptocurrency, NFTs and fan tokens. Their involvement ranges from paid exchange endorsements to personal NFT purchases and club-linked digital assets. Three of the biggest names of recent decades – Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, and Neymar Jr. – have appeared in crypto-related campaigns.
For anyone new to the subject, it’s useful to separate the ways people use digital assets, including how to pay with crypto, from the products often marketed through soccer and other sports. A player endorsing an exchange, buying an NFT or receiving fan tokens is not necessarily making the same kind of financial commitment.
Lionel Messi
When Messi signed for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, part of the arrangement included PSG fan tokens, a digital asset tied to the club (rather than a conventional cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum). Messi also appeared in promotional material for Socios.com, the platform behind many football fan tokens.
Fan tokens often give fans access to club polls, rewards or experiences, but they don’t mean equity in a club. Messi’s arrangement with the club was a commercial and engagement product, not a straightforward investment in cryptocurrency (Messi received an undisclosed amount of PSG’s tokens).
The Argentinian’s business interests have since expanded to club ownership. In April 2026, Messi acquired UE Cornellà, a Catalan club then playing in Spain’s fifth tier, with the purchase reportedly a long-term project to develop local talent. A few months later, Messi completed the acquisition of CD Eldense, a Spanish second-tier club.
On the pitch, the “little genius”, as commentators often refer to him, still has a huge impact on the MLS for Inter Miami. Messi won the MLS Cup and the Golden Boot in 2025, and was named MVP for the second year running.
Kylian Mbappé
Mbappé promoted Sorare, the fantasy football platform built on blockchain technology. Players collect digital player cards, build teams and compete in fantasy competitions; the cards can be bought, sold or traded.
Sorare is in a different part of the crypto ecosystem from exchanges like Binance (which “enables trading in digital assets”, as per Investopedia). Sorare is closer to digital collectibles and fantasy sports than to a payment network or investment product.
Mbappé’s Real Madrid are among the favorites for the Champions League this season. They have a new (old) coach in José Mourinho, who returned to the club after leaving in 2013.
Mbappé is widely regarded as one of the world’s best players but has not yet won a Ballon d’Or. After two months of the 2026-27 season, he was seen as third favorite along with Messi. Harry Kane was widely expected to win the award for the first time, with Lamine Yamal next likeliest. Although the Ballon d’Or is mostly seen as an individual award, one of the three criteria is “Collective performance and titles won.”
The Frenchman did not win any titles with Real Madrid or France in 2026. Mbappé won the 2018 World Cup and was voted the best young player and became only the second teenager (after Brazilian Pelé) to score in a final.
The attacker said in a fall interview with French magazine Onze Mondial that he had shown “time and again” that he is capable of doing “stupid things.” Mbappé said that no one really knows stars through TV and that there are analyses that don’t match reality.
In the same interview, Mbappé said that he thinks of himself as the best partly because that helps avoid setting limits on himself.
Neymar Jr.
Neymar purchased high-profile Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, invested in the exchange Bitstamp and worked with NFTSTAR, a platform focused on athlete-related digital collectibles.
He has another off-field passion in poker. Neymar began playing poker seriously around the 2014 World Cup, became an ambassador for a poker platform the following year, and has competed in the European Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker.
Neymar retired from Brazil duty following the 2026 World Cup. The attacker said his international career was “finished” after their exit to Norway. Neymar da Silva Santos Sr., his father, urged the star to keep playing. Weeks later, Neymar Jr. confirmed to reporters that his time with Brazil had “passed.”
Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti said the staff would start trialling young players, while sticking with some of the squad that were at the World Cup.
Neymar plays his club football for Santos in Brazil, the team he started his professional career with in 2009. His list of career honors includes two La Ligas, the Champions League, and the Club World Cup with Barcelona, five Ligue 1 titles with PSG, and the Copa Libertadores with Santos in his first spell. He also won two Olympic medals with Brazil: gold in 2016 after silver in 2012.
