With Christmas fast approaching, many people, especially men, will be shopping for jewellery items for the lady in their life. But this Christmas could see heads turned by a factor normally absent from this time of year.
The unique occasion of a World Cup in the northern hemisphere winter means that the run-up to the festivities will see plenty of WAGs in view on the telly, many of them sporting some spectacular glittering rocks on their fingers, sparkling necklaces and other items their phenomenally rich partners have shelled out for.
It is not hard to find press coverage about this either; for example, that well-known publicity shy, modest chap Cristiano Ronaldo is never short of a penny or two and The Sun has written about how his girlfriend Georgina Rodrigues showed off £1.6 million worth of jewellery in an Instagram post, including a necklace, bracelet and rings.
The good news, however, is that it is possible to find designer jewellery for women without having vast sums of money to spend as a result of years of superstardom.
Indeed, some may argue that some of the larger, more sparkly items are just too ostentatious; maybe that’s fine for a WAG, but not for most women who just want to look good on a special occasion. It is possible to look a million dollars without actually spending it.
The Ronaldo-Rodriguez collection has not been the only time jewellery has been in the headlines this World Cup. A rather less savoury instance was the burglary at the home of England player Raheem Sterling, in which an estimated £300,000 of jewellery and watches were stolen. The player himself briefly flew back home after the incident but is now back in Qatar.
It is far from the first time a footballer’s home has been targeted by thieves seeking high-worth items, which may act as a reminder that being able to spend huge fortunes on jewellery is not all good news anyway.