FLOAT

FLOAT 100 · Trading cards · No. 69

2004-05 Panini Megacracks Lionel Messi #71 Bis RC

Sold in Spanish packs when Lionel Messi was a 17-year-old with seven league appearances, a small Panini card numbered 71 bis became, in 2025, the first soccer card to sell for $1.5 million.

Year
2004-05
Maker
Panini Megacracks
By price in trading cards
3 of 100
Realized at auction · 2025$1,500,000A realized sale: somebody paid it.

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Issued
2004-05 season, Panini Sports Mega Cracks La Liga set, card #71 bis
Line
Mega Cracks, Panini's card line for Spain's La Liga
Subject
Lionel Messi, FC Barcelona, pictured at 17 in his first-team debut season
Rookie status
Collectors rank the #71 bis first, by far, among Messi's 2004-05 Mega Cracks cards
This entry
PSA 10 (Gem Mint)
Census
PSA had graded 838 copies with 20 PSA 10s by September 2025; its population still showed 20 PSA 10s and 57 PSA 9s at the time of writing
Record
$1.5 million private sale of a PSA 10 in September 2025, the most ever paid for a soccer card
Previous soccer record
$1.33 million for a 1958 Alifabolaget Pele card in a 2022 private sale

A Spanish card for a Spanish season

Mega Cracks was Panini's card line for Spain's La Liga. The 2004-05 edition happened to catch Lionel Messi in the first season he played for FC Barcelona's first team, which is why its Messi card, numbered 71 bis, became his recognized rookie card. The same season produced other Mega Cracks Messi cards, but when a newcomer asked which to own, a veteran collector on a hobby forum put the 71 bis first, 'by far.'

For years the card was cheap. One forum collector said he bought two raw copies from Spain for about $50, had one graded PSA 9 and sold it to another collector for $500. Another recalled paying $511 for a PSA 9 in June 2015 and wishing he had bought several.

Seven appearances and one goal

Lionel Messi was born June 24, 1987. He made his La Liga debut for Barcelona on October 16, 2004, at 17, in a 1-0 win at Espanyol. Through the 2004-05 season he appeared in seven league matches, all off the bench, for a total of 70 minutes, and scored once.

That goal came on May 1, 2005, at home against Albacete, four minutes after he entered a 2-0 win. Barcelona finished first in La Liga that season. A year later, at 18, he played 17 league matches with 11 starts and scored six goals.

What followed made the card. Messi became Barcelona's all-time leading scorer and won four Champions League titles with the club. With Argentina he won the 2022 World Cup, beating France in a penalty shootout. A 2026 report credited him with more than 910 goals, 410 assists and 46 major team trophies. He joined Inter Miami of Major League Soccer in 2023.

Spain in 2004

The season the card appeared opened in a shaken country. On March 11, 2004, ten bombs exploded on four commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring more than 1,000. Three days later Spain voted in a national election, and the new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, announced that Spanish troops would leave Iraq.

Against that backdrop Barcelona's 2004-05 team won the league, and a teenager who barely played became the subject of a card that, two decades later, would outsell every other soccer card in the hobby.

From $500 to $1.5 million

The price of top copies rose in steps. A PSA 10 sold at auction for $266,400 on June 14, 2023. A report in August 2025 said the card's record had been $322,080, set in January 2024, until that month.

Then the market jumped. In August 2025 a PSA 10 copy sold privately for $825,000, and less than a month later the same copy resold privately for more than $1 million, announced on August 28. In September 2025 a PSA 10 that also carried a third-party corner-grading 'Diamond' designation sold privately for $1.5 million, the most ever paid for a soccer card. Days earlier another PSA 10 had sold privately for $1.1 million, and a further copy brought $960,000 at auction, according to a later report.

Lower grades rose too. PSA 9 copies sold at auction for $22,800 in June 2023 and $52,413 in February 2025, and a PSA 8 brought $41,500 in October 2025.

Telling the cards apart

The card that matters is the 2004-05 Panini Sports Mega Cracks numbered 71 bis. Other Messi cards from the same set, including Barcelona championship ('Campio') cards in Spanish and Catalan versions, rank well behind it with collectors.

Condition is the whole story at the top: of 838 copies PSA had graded by September 2025, only 20 earned a 10, and a 2026 report called the card notoriously condition sensitive.

The numbers

2004-05 La Liga (age 17)
7 appearances, 0 starts, 70 minutes, 1 goal, 0 assists. Barcelona finished 1st.
Debut
October 16, 2004, at Espanyol (Barcelona won 1-0)
First goal
May 1, 2005, vs. Albacete, in 4 minutes on the field
2005-06 La Liga (age 18)
17 appearances, 11 starts, 911 minutes, 6 goals, 3 assists
Career (reported 2026)
More than 910 goals, 410 assists and 46 major team trophies
Honors
2022 World Cup; four Champions League titles; Barcelona's all-time leading scorer

Timeline

  1. Lionel Messi is born.

  2. Messi debuts in La Liga for Barcelona at 17, in a 1-0 win at Espanyol.

  3. Panini's 2004-05 Mega Cracks La Liga set includes Messi as card #71 bis.

  4. Messi scores his first league goal, against Albacete.

  5. Barcelona wins La Liga.

  6. A collector buys a PSA 9 copy for $511.

  7. Argentina beats France on penalties to win the World Cup.

  8. Messi signs with Inter Miami.

  9. A PSA 10 sells at auction for $266,400.

  10. The card's record rises to $322,080.

  11. A PSA 10 sells privately for $825,000, then resells for more than $1 million.

  12. A PSA 10 sells privately for $1.5 million, a record for any soccer card.

The world in 2004

  • Bombs on four Madrid commuter trains kill 191 people.

  • Mass demonstrations against the bombings sweep Spain.

  • Spain holds a national election.

  • Prime Minister-elect Zapatero announces Spanish troops will leave Iraq.

  • Zapatero is sworn in as prime minister.

  • Infanta Leonor of Spain is born.

Price record

DatePriceKind
Jun 14, 2023$266,400Sold at auctionPSA 10.
Aug 2025$825,000Private salePSA 10; the same copy resold later that month for more than $1 million.
Sep 2025$1,100,000Private salePSA 10, sold days before the $1.5 million copy.
Sep 2025$1,500,000Private salePSA 10 with an added corner-grading Diamond designation. A record for any soccer card.

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 2004-05 Panini Megacracks Lionel Messi #71 Bis RC is number 3 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (69 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

  • Messi played only 70 league minutes in the season his rookie card was issued.
  • His first La Liga goal came four minutes after he stepped onto the field.
  • A collector paid $511 for a PSA 9 copy in 2015; PSA 9s sold for more than $50,000 a decade later.
  • One PSA 10 copy sold privately twice within a month in 2025, first for $825,000 and then for more than $1 million.
  • The $1.5 million sale beat a record set by a 1958 Pele card in 2022.
How this page is made
The figure
One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not
A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
The story
Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
Archive
Oct 5, 2026