Five thousand unsold gold-plated Frank Lampard iPods are to be melted down following England's dismal World Cup flop. The Moscow Chelski FC midfielder teamed up with Dragons' Den firm Goldgenie to launch the twenty four-carat iPod Touch, costing up to six hundred smackers. Which is about twenty minutes wages for Lampard if you're counting. 
But now bosses at the company are set to salvage the gold from all of the remaining iPods, which feature Lampard's laser-etched signature on the back. Goldgenie, backed by James Caan, is said to be planning to rebrand them with childrens' cartoon character Hello Kitty. A source told the Sun: 'It's not exactly melting down - it's a chemical process. But basically Goldgenie are recovering all the gold so they can use it again. They thought loads of people would want them during the World Cup but the backlash against England was so bad that they've had to scrap the whole thing.' Inarticulate, permanently-bewildered-looking Lampard - thirty two and currently dating Christine Bleakley - launched the sixty fourGB gold-plated iPod at Harrods in May. A spokesman for the footballer said: 'Frank donated all his royalties on the sale of the iPods to the Teenage Cancer Trust. He also made an up-front donation to the charity. It's disappointing the iPods have not reached sales targets as Frank wanted to help the TCT for which he's a patron.' A Goldgenie spokesman said: 'We may have over-ordered due to World Cup hopes, but that's no reflection on Frank's popularity.' Oh, I'd've said it very much is, actually.
But now bosses at the company are set to salvage the gold from all of the remaining iPods, which feature Lampard's laser-etched signature on the back. Goldgenie, backed by James Caan, is said to be planning to rebrand them with childrens' cartoon character Hello Kitty. A source told the Sun: 'It's not exactly melting down - it's a chemical process. But basically Goldgenie are recovering all the gold so they can use it again. They thought loads of people would want them during the World Cup but the backlash against England was so bad that they've had to scrap the whole thing.' Inarticulate, permanently-bewildered-looking Lampard - thirty two and currently dating Christine Bleakley - launched the sixty fourGB gold-plated iPod at Harrods in May. A spokesman for the footballer said: 'Frank donated all his royalties on the sale of the iPods to the Teenage Cancer Trust. He also made an up-front donation to the charity. It's disappointing the iPods have not reached sales targets as Frank wanted to help the TCT for which he's a patron.' A Goldgenie spokesman said: 'We may have over-ordered due to World Cup hopes, but that's no reflection on Frank's popularity.' Oh, I'd've said it very much is, actually. 
