Graph Blockchain (GBLC.C) subsidiary New World has onboarded on Ronaldinho after they flew him in to film and produce a marketing campaign that’s going to be part of a non-fungible token collection on their platform, as well as an in-person event scheduled for later on this year.

While they had him, they put together photo and video content and used 3D scanning technology to get the fundamentals of what will eventually become NFTs of Ronaldinho in augmented reality.

For those of us who aren’t into soccer, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira is a retired Brazilian soccer player. He’s considered one of the best players of his generation and by many as one of the greatest of all time. He won two FIFA World Player of the Year awards and a Ballon d’Or. He’s largely regarded as a global icon of the sport, and was renowned for his technical skills, dribbling ability, creativity, and accuracy from free kicks. And plenty more.

New World is an augmented reality platform that incorporates NFTs from celebs, athletes, musicians, artists and brands, all minted and marketed from the Ethereum blockchain.

The soccer great was in town to commemorate Canadian soccer with Toronto FC and celebrate both Brazil and Canada qualifying for the World Cup. He took in a Toronto Raport’s game with superfan Nav Batia, wearing a Diogo Snow New World hoodie to promote his forthcoming NFT drop. You get the idea. They’re pushing hard on the promo, trying to get people onto their site to buy NFTs.

This push for NFTs make sense right now. They’re hot. People are lining up their metamask wallets to get some of these tradeable digital tulips, and as long as people don’t wake up and realize that they’re spending money on something that’s one day going to run out of value, they’ll continue to be hot.

But I wouldn’t want to be the one left holding the bag after people realize the contents are worthless. That’ll be an interesting day.

—Joseph Morton