A bird described as the "Lionel Messi" of pigeons has fetched a record price of £1m at an auction.

Armando the pigeon - owned by Joel Verschoot - has a race record that has "never been matched" and attracted bids from countries around the world.

The previous record for a bird sold in an online auction was €376,000 (£322,000), set in November.

The high-value sale also trumped the record offline price of €500,000 (£600,000) paid for a pigeon named Mr Fantastic.

Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, founder and chief executive of auction house Pipa, said the pigeon's race record made it so valuable.


Image: Armando has retired from racing at five years old

"In football terms you have Messi and Ronaldo - it's that level," he said.

The price for Armano was pushed up by about €700,000 (£600,000) by two Chinese fanciers in the final hour of the auction.

"There was nobody in the pigeon world who thought that would happen," said Mr Gyselbrecht.

Armano has retired from racing at five years old, but buyers were interested in his breeding potential - in the same auction, a number of his offspring were sold for five-figure sums.

Image: The pigeon has a race record which has 'never been matched'

The bird has been described as the "Lewis Hamilton of pigeons", but Mr Gyselbrecht suggested the comparison did not go far enough.

"I don't know how important Lewis Hamilton is in Formula One," he said. "Is he the best ever?

"Maybe Schumacher. This pigeon is the best ever."