Stickers are like currency to football fans. I still remember, aged 8, being in the playground at lunch swapping and sharing stickers. More recently, at 30, I remember being in the staff room at lunch swapping and sharing stickers.
Stickers have a hold over football fans like nothing else. There is something about placing a sticker perfectly into that little rectangle in the book. It feels right; it feels natural and it gives you a sense of achievement.
You don’t have to look very far to find interesting stories about people and their stickers. In the past week we have had a story about the Costa Rica forward Joel Campbell. He decided to buy 100 packets of World Cup Panini stickers, but to his dismay, he could not find himself.
Since their creation in the 1960s Panini, the famous sticker company, have released hundreds of varieties of sticker albums and millions of stickers worldwide. With the recent launch of their new World Cup collection, the South American HQ went into overdrive as they started to produce 9 million stickers a day.
Talking of World Cup stickers it has to be said that Mario Balotelli has managed to show us his mischievous side by filling in the entire Italy squad…..with pictures of himself.
There are a few companies that produce football stickers, but lets face it, Panini is king. The company was founded by the Panini brothers in Italy and it has gone on to dominate the football sticker market. Panini themselves carried out a survey in the in the the 1980s that claimed over 90% of boys aged 9-11 had bought Panini stickers. Talk about market domination!
I have no shame in admitting I still enjoy football stickers. Just like match programmes and football kits, stickers are one of those little things that football fans enjoy collecting and keeping. So as long as Panini keep making them I will keep sticking them.
Let’s finish by having a look at some pretty fantastic Panini stickers from the good old days.
