Christoph Kramer wins life after sharing glorious full set of Pokemon cards

Christoph Kramer has played nearly 200 games in the Bundsliga for Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Monchengladbach over the last seven-and-a-half years and won the World Cup in 2014. But one of the finer achievements in life might just be a full set of all 151 original Pokemon cards.

Born in 1991 and now 29, Kramer was the perfect age for the first Pokemon boom in the late 1990s.

He has posted images of his complete collection on Instagram, while Gladbach’s official English language Twitter account has also shared the pictures.

All 151 original Pokemon are there and, based on the pictures, he clearly cherishes them and keeps them in pristine condition, which means the set could be worth a small fortune.

Some of the very rarest Pokemon cards can sell for thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars in mint condition and a quick scan of eBay could have you rushing to dig out that old box from under the bed or stashed at the back of the wardrobe.

But even Kramer’s Pokemon card set likely wouldn’t fetch anything like what his World Cup medal would be worth. It was reported in May 2020 that an un-named member of France’s 2018 squad had sold their winner’s medal at auction for just over $71,000.

With only one season of top flight first-team football under his belt, Kramer started the 2014 World Cup final in Germany’s midfield alongside Bastian Schweinsteiger and Toni Kroos.

However, he suffered a head injury early on in the contest against Argentina and had to be withdrawn in the first half after initially trying to play on with what was later suspected to be a concussion. The impact was severe enough that he forgot he was playing in the World Cup final.

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