<p>GENEVA &mdash; A unique trophy will go to the scorer of the best European Championship goal — a piece of Russian crypto-art animating an original work that will be destroyed.</p>
<p>The first soccer award at a major tournament taking the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) is being created with tournament sponsor Gazprom, UEFA said Friday.</p>
<p>Mainstream interest in authenticated digital art peaked in March when a piece <a href="https://apnews.com/article/beeple-nft-christies-record-sale-69-million-548cfccdad07dc86e7ac09c9926aea38">sold for $69.4 million</a> at auction.</p>
<p>The winning player will be invited to receive the award at UEFA headquarters in Switzerland after the June 11-July 11 tournament.</p>
<p>“The NFT-trophy will be delivered using a hardware cryptocurrency wallet,” Russian state energy firm Gazprom said in a statement. “The name of the trophy winner will be coded into the trophy.”</p>
<p>The original artwork will be “physically created” at the Euro 2020 fan zone in St. Petersburg, said the sponsor, which did not identify who the artist will be.</p>
<p>St. Petersburg is hosting seven of the 51 games at Euro 2020, which will be played in 11 different cities around Europe.</p>
<p>“Later on, the artwork would be scanned to 3D animated video, which becomes the basis for creating an NFT-token trophy,” Gazprom said.</p>
<p>The plan is for the original artwork to be publicly destroyed, though a fragment will be kept and presented to the winning player.</p>
<p>UEFA has never made a formal award for goal of the tournament at previous European Championships, and is deciding how the inaugural Euro 2020 winner will be judged.</p>
<p>FIFA organizes a world-wide vote of fans to choose the best goal at a World Cup. France defender Benjamin Pavard was chosen in 2018 for his shot against Argentina in the round of 16.</p>
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