World Cup Footballers and Fun Car Facts

At Motor Range, we love any excuse to party and so with the FIFA World Cup 2018 here, we’ve gone footballing mad!

We’re celebrating England’s success so far and looking forward to some great football from the Three Lions as well as other legendary footballers from around the world.

Of course, footballers and fancy cars go hand in hand, right?

Not always. Take Wayne Rooney, for example. He was given a Ford KA when he passed his driving test whilst signed to Everton.

Jesus Navas favoured a Nissan Micra in his days with Manchester City. And Portsmouth footballers could, until recently, regularly be seen driving the team’s customised Reliant Robin as a penalty for a poor training session.

But with Hyundai and Kia Motors acting as a main sponsor for the FIFA World Cup, it can’t be denied that footballers LOVE their cars. Usually the bigger the better!

One of the world’s top players, Cristiano Ronaldo has a whole garage full of cars with impressive labels, such as Bugatti, Ferrari, Rolls Royce and Lamborghini.

Other players have plumped for more attainable brands, like BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and, in Steven Gerrard’s case, Land Rover - all top spec, of course!

Not forgetting the squad of 19 BMW i8s that Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha bought for his team after their premier league win in the 2015/16 season.

A love of cars and football is common the whole world over.

We’ve put together the lowdown on the World Cup Final groups, along with some fun facts and strange motoring laws from each competing country. Click the group to find out more!

GROUP A GROUP B GROUP C GROUP D GROUP E GROUP F GROUP G GROUP H

Quite simply, footballers are so besotted with
flashy cars, because they can afford to be!

Yes, the truth is that to a player who earns hundreds of thousands of pounds a week, these cars are relatively inexpensive.

Take Lionel Messi, he enjoys a Ferrari F430 Spider (costing around £75,000) which he can pay for in just 31 minutes, 32 seconds on the Barcelona pitch

Or Everton’s Wayne Rooney who has to play for only 50 minutes, 36 seconds to pay off his Aston Martin Vanquish S.

Phil Jagielka who wears his boots for a measly 46 minutes, 41 seconds to fund his relatively sensible Vauxhall Ampera.

How about Jordan Henderson? He’ll have paid off his Audi RS7 by the time the Liverpool match hits the 56 minute mark.

While teammate Roberto Firmino needs to put in just over an hour of play to pay off his Range Rover Sport.

Of course there’s no accounting for taste,
and football heroes are no exception!

Once again, sports stars like to pimp their motors, simply because they can!

Many top players have made the headlines for their poor choice in vehicle, such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who was slammed for the gold foil finish on his Audi R8, and Stephen Ireland whose pink Range Rover drew more than one strange look.

Weirdest of all has to be Mario Balotelli’s camouflage wrap on his £160,000 Bentley Continental GT!

Here’s hoping that Team England’s results in the World Cup will be more predictable than their choice in cars!

We’re rooting for wins all the way!

While Motor Range is certainly better at motors than football, it’s no chore for us to spend a little time once every four years getting whipped up into the footballing frenzy that’s the World Cup! So pop along to one of our showrooms to get involved with our events running right up until the final on 15th July.

While you’re there, pick from one of our range of coupés, convertibles or 4x4s to feel like a star every day!