PETER JOHNSON has struck gold with his sports memorabilia empire.

The collectables geek was £10,000 in debt when he founded his business, Firma Stella.

And after finding great success selling signed gear, pictures and other items, he is now a millionaire.

Peter "got the buzz" for collecting sports memorabilia after getting former Australia cricket captain Steve Waugh's signature as a nine-year-old.

He told the Daily Mail: "Instead of a paper round as a teenager, I would chase autographs and collect stuff to sell it.

"I loved the buzz of selling them for a lot of money. I started travelling around the world to chase stuff.

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"I went to the F1 in Asia, the Rugby World Cup in Japan, Manchester City pre-season tours. Then I decided, 'let’s make this an empire'.

"I was in £10,000 debt… Now I’m a millionaire. All with four and a half years’ work."

Firma Stella, based in Worcestershire where Peter grew up, is going well, and he has 12 full-time employees working for him.

The business sells a wide variety of items from £10 photos to £5,000 signed shirts.

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The shop has pictures of Springboks captain Siya Kolisi and Mo Salah signing items to be sold, but Peter is confident that meeting Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is the highlight.

He added: "Real Madrid were playing Manchester United, and I found out about Ronaldo’s flight.

"I followed their bus from the airport to a hotel and quickly booked a room. I knew they were staying on the top floor, and their team room was on the second floor.

"I saw the lift was on the top floor so I waited for it to come down.

"No joke, the first lift that opened… imagine it, Ronaldo is just standing there! So I jumped in and he was like, 'what the hell?'.

"He signed some stuff and we went from there."

The shop currently has four Man United shirts with the number seven on the back signed by Ronaldo. However, none are for sale for less than £1,400.

After Argentina's success at the World Cup in Qatar, there are no Messi shirts for sale, despite Pete meeting the PSG star.

He said: "With Messi, I had to take a big risk – this whole game is about risks. I found out Barcelona flew out of a public airport, so I flew over there from Birmingham.

"Then I booked a “fake flight” from Barcelona just to get into the terminal. All of a sudden, the team just walked through security – Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez… they signed all our stuff.

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"We took a risk and it paid off. It all comes down to research, knowing where the players and the team will be, then hedge your bets slightly, it usually pays off"

Peter also revealed that the biggest sale he has made is an England 1966 signed shirt which fetched a fee of £10,000.

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