Inside World Cup’s Sticker Collecting Craze

Soccer—or football—is the most popular sport in the world. But beyond throwing on a jersey and cheering for your team, soccer fans have another way of showing their love. Where baseball has its cards, World Cup soccer has its stickers. For nearly 50 years, the Panini sticker album has become a well-worn, global ritual, where fans collect, trade and try to fill up their tome with as many players as possible. It all began during Mexico’s World Cup in 1970; today, it’s become a tradition nearly as treasured as watching the games themselves.

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[CarlosPacheco]

oh man Panini stickers.... used to love those books. I would collect books and stickers based on cartoons/movies.

[Luxbecca]

Aw man, I remember these! In 2006 the World Cup was hosted in Germany, me (quite young at the time) and my brother managed to get the full sticker album after hard work of buying, collecting and trading. This sticker craze was worse than any Pokémon, Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh cards phases

[yushayasad]

I lost you when you said
.
..
...
....






*"SOCCER"*

[HardcorePanda]

Italian guy must be heartbroken since their team did not qualify.

[sujithkolap]

I used to collect stickers of cricketers in a similar way in my childhood...
You made me nostalgic today...

[rayzr]

I remember having this for hockey and filling the Stanley cup and feeling so happy

[likealillo]

I'm Italian and I'm so happu
y about this, panini stickers is part of Italian culture, of course!😍❤️🇮🇹

[Oeilsurtoi]

Looks like the Italian team cards are very limited and rare in the 2018 Panini album

[Marco_LaGuardia]

What is the meaning of soccer? Can't find it on the dictionary... 🤣⚽️

[rntobi]

Who else is almost done with the album?

[ashamatya]

Now that's called dedication..
Passion...to most beautiful game
And it's called football not soccer...😎😎

[khaliddjafaar]

But the down point are the album is out before the official 23 man squad. So some players in this album don't pick by their coach to represent in the World Cup. For example 00:43 Giuliano didn't make it in the final cut for Brazil national team 23 man squad.

[EHayami]

wow, Panini...a relic of my childhood. I remember about the NBA version and the Smurfs

[shazlig]

I had it for mexico 86. The silver football badges were the treasures.

[robertluengas]

In about twenty four packs that I have opened I got about ten repeats, and in my latest few packs I got two to repeats per pack, and most were good players, Harry Kane, Gabriel Mercado Radamel Falcao, and a few others.

[meganp]

Just finding out about this. Great video btw, as always!

[frridr]

My wife is addicted to World Cup Panini Stickers, and swapps with people online, her doubles for ones she doesn't have. ⚽

[eliflores]

FOOTBALL ⚽️, EGGBALL 🏈, SOCKER🧦. Know the Difference!

[joshsfishroom]

I live in panama for half the year and in the US the other half. Last time I was in panama I bought a pack of stickers. After opening them and being very disappointed I gave them to a little kid who lived across the street from me. The End

[NijatIbrahimov-ek]

I have like 1000+ world cup panini cards from 2014 and like 500 for world cup 2018