The 1957 Ferrari 335 S Spider Scaglietti owned by Italian billionaire Alessandro Proto went on sale last week at the Artcurial Motorcars Retromobile 2016 in Paris and fetched the world-record fee.
The identity of the buyer has been kept anonymous but Sport claim a press release from Proto's company has suggested Messi could have won the auction with Ronaldo also a keen bidder.
Credit: Artcurial
The bidding for the historic Ferrari, which was driven by legendary F1 driver Stirling Moss in the 1958 Cuban Grand Prix, started at €20m.
Proto and Ronaldo have long been linked, with the Real Madrid star reportedly dropped from a Martin Scorsese film about the Italian's life and bought the billionaire's Trump Tower apartment in New York.