Ah lads.
Have you ever read something so bizarre, you can’t believe it’s real life?
Well, that happened to me this morning, when I learned of Armando the pigeon.
Armando is a Belgian racing pigeon, that recently sold for a whopping €1.25 million at auction.
WOT?
Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, the founder and CEO of Pipa, the auction house, said:
“This pigeon has a race record that has never been matched by any other pigeon.”
“In football terms you have Messi and Ronaldo – it’s that level.”
It beat the record price of €500,000 paid for a pigeon named Mr Fantastic.
So yeah, he’s the most expensive pigeon ever.
“There was nobody in the pigeon world who thought that would happen,” said Mr Gyselbrecht.
“We were hoping for four or five hundred thousand, and maybe a little bit dreaming of six.”
And wildly, Armando recently retired from racing, but holds such high value because of his breeding potential.
A number of his kiddos were sold for five-figure sums in the same auction.
What a time to be alive.
The bird has been described as the “Lewis Hamilton of pigeons” but the name does not impress Mr Gyselbrecht.
“I don’t know how important Lewis Hamilton is in Formula One,” he said. “Is he the best ever?
“Maybe Schumacher. This pigeon is the best ever.”
“A lot of people I know congratulate me and think it’s good,” said Mr Gyselbrecht.
“But there’s also a group of people that do not like that so much money is involved.
“It’s like in football, some people can’t believe the money being paid. There are some who don’t like it.”
There you have it now…
