lunedì 23 settembre 2013

Panini Calciatori 2012-2013


The Panini saga of Italian football (started in 1961) continues with another amazing album for the season 2012-2013. It is an extremely rich encyclopedia that with updates and extra stickers includes a total of 857 stickers!
The cover shows the top players of the 20 Serie A teams distributed on an Italy map according to the location of their team.
This year the album opens with 7 introductory stickers (silver shining): The official ball, the Serie A, Tim Cup and SuperCup Trophies and Logos.


As usual, the teams are showed in alphabetical order. Serie A teams for the season 2012-2013 are:
Atalanta, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Chievo Verona, Fiorentina Genoa,  Inter, Juventus, Lazio, Milan, Napoli, Palermo, Parma, Pescara, Roma, Sampdoria, Siena, Torino, Udinese.
For each team we find a total of 24 stickers + 5 update stickers. A shining team logo, the team squad (2 stickers), the coach and 25 player portraits, including 5 players of the winter transfer updates. 
The stickers "Trasferito" (provided by Panini with the update sticker set) must be placed in correspondance of the transferred players



Fiorentina was a positive surprise of the season, with a final 4th place. We find stickers of Ljaic (now at Roma), Jovetic (now at Manchester City) and Giuseppe Rossi (arrived from Villarreal during the winter market).



Disappointing season for Inter (9th place), which lost Sneijder (transferred to Galatasaray) and Coutinho (transferred to Liverpool) during the season, but purchased Kovacic (update sticker), a promising young play-maker (born 1994).



Juventus was champion again. Here we find stickers of the best players of the season (Vidal, Pirlo, Pogba), together with some low-performance players (Lucio, Bendtner, Anelka).



Milan got a final 3rd place, especially due to Balotelli, arrived from Manchester City in the winter market (update sticker). El Shaarawy was one good protagonist of the first part of the season,



Napoli (2nd place) was the main competitor of Juventus, showing brilliant players like Hamsik and Cavani. The latter is an amazing scorer that moved to PSG at the end of the season for over 60 millions of euros.



Cavani and Balotelli are two of the greatest top-players of the album:


The junior and the senior. The young Lamela is a rising star arrived in Rome from River Plate, but Totti is still the king of the team, and thus Lamela moved to Tottenham at the end of the season.


Rising Star. Mateo Kovacic is a young Serbian midfielder that moved to Inter from Dynamo Zagreb in January. We find his sticker in the update set. It is potential a future football star.


Logos of the three relegated teams (Pescara, Siena and Palermo):

 

After the Serie A teams, we find three special sections: "Campionato Primavera", "Lo Show del Gol" and "Il Film del Campionato". 
For the first time there are two pages dedicated to the young teams (Campionato Primavera). The stickers of the 42 teams are included, together with the logo sticker of the competition.
20 stickers are dedicated to the best goals of the first part of the season ("Lo show del gol") distributed on 4 pages.





"Il film del campionato" are 16 stickers distributed on 2 pages telling the movie of the season. They could be found in two special packets offered with a sport magazine (one in January and one in June 2013).


Each Serie B team is placed on one page, with 6 stickers for the players (18 portraits), one for the squad and half sticker for the shining logo. The surprising winner of the Season was Sassuolo, which joined Serie A together with Hellas Verona and Livorno.


As usual also Lega Pro 1st and 2nd division are included. The first division shows team logos and squads stickers of each team, the second division only the team logos.




The final section of the album is "Il calcio che cambia": 12 stickers dedicated to new rules recently introduced in football.


Album Details
Full name: Panini Calciatori 2012-2013
Publisher: Panini
League: Italian (Serie A, Serie B, Lega Pro)
Number of teams: 20 Serie A
                              22 Serie B
Stickers per team: 29 Serie A
                              7.5 Serie B
Special Sections: -Campionato Primavera
                            -Lo Show del gol
                            -Il Calcio che cambia
Extra stickers: -Winter market update (100 stickers)
                        -Il film del campionato (16 stickers)

Total number of stickers: 857




domenica 8 settembre 2013

Panini Ekstraklasa 2013 - Poland



In the recent years (since 2008/2009), Panini has published the official sticker collection of the Ekstraklasa, the Polish Premier League. Here we present the last edition, concerning the season 2012/2013. The album includes all the 16 teams for a total of 340 stickers. The league was won by Legia Warsaw, who stayed leader for the most of the season and won also the Polish Cup. Second place for Lech Poznan and third for former champions Slask Wroclaw. 
The album opens with the contents of the album and the first 3 stickers, which are silver shining: the Panini Logo, the Ekstraklasa Logo and the League Trophy.



Before the teams, there are two special sections, each consisting of two pages. First, six stickers celebrating the previous season are presented: the winner Slask Wroclaw and the best players. Then, there are 10 stickers dedicated to the 10 best young players of the competition. Among them: Skorupski (now goalkeeper at Roma), Kupisz (now at Chievo), Milik (transferred to Bayer Leverkusen), Wolski (now bought by Fiorentina) and Wszolek (now at Sampdoria).





The 16 teams of Ekstraklasa 2013 are: Belchatow, Gornik Zabrze, Jagiellonia, Korona Kielce, Lech Poznan, Lechia Gdansk, Legia Warszawa, Piast Gliwice, Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biala, Pogon Szczecin, Polonia Warszawa, Ruch Chorzow, Slask Wroclaw, Widzew Lodz, Wisla Krakow and Zaglebie Lubin.





The winners of both League and Cup (Legia Warszawa) present some interesting young players: Rafal Wolski (1992), Dominik Furman (1992), Michal Zyro (1992), Daniel Lukasik (1991), and Michal Kucharczyk (1991).
















Two Dutch players are included in the album, Johan Voskamp (Slask Wroclaw) and Kew Jaliens (Wisla Krakow). Voskamp is now back at Sparta Rotterdam (Dutch second league), where he scored 29 goals in the season 2010/2011. In Poland he won the title in the season in 2012, scoring 6 goals.

The album closes with the season calendar and the last sticker: the official ball of the competition (silver shining foil), which is also the picture of the cover.



Album Details


Full Name: T-Mobile 2013 Ekstraklasa
Publisher: Panini
League: Polish Premier League (Ekstraklasa)
Number of teams: 16
Stickers per team: 20

Special Sections:
-4 silver shining stickers (Panini and Ekstraklasa logo, Cup and Ball)
-6 stickers about season 2011-12
-10 stickers of the best young players

Total number of stickers: 340








domenica 1 settembre 2013

Panini Futebol 2012-2013


Coleçao Oficial de Cromos - Liga Zon Sagres 2012-13


The Portuguese season 2012-13 has been very exciting and incredible: Benfica dominated the most of it, but they lost all the advantage with Porto in the last three games. The second last match (Porto-Benfica) was decisive, with Porto prevailing with a gol of Kelvin in the extra time. It was a big disappointment for Benfica, which lost also the Europa League Final (against Chelsea) and the Portugal Cup Final (against Vitoria Guimaraes) in the last minutes.

The official collection of the Portuguese Premier League 2013 (Liga Zon Sagres) by Panini is a rich collection including all the competing teams, updates, last transfers and Europeran football stars. The football teams are showed in alphabetical order and placed on two pages. The 16 teams included are: Academica, Beira Mar, Benfica, Braga, Estoril, Gil Vicente, Maritimo, Moreirense, Nacional, Olhanense, Paços Ferreira, Porto, Rio Ave, Sporting, Vitoria Guimaraes, Vitoria Setubal.

For each team there are 20 stickers: 1x team squad, 1x team badge (silver foil) and 18x player portraits.



The Special characteristic of this album is the presence of double stickers ("Cromos Bis") to substitute players that have been transferred away. These stickers can be placed on top of the substituted sticker, glueing only the top part of the sticker so that it is possible to lift it and still see the sticker below (as shown in the pictures of the Benfica team). In this way the album includes also football stars that were transferred away at the beginning of the season, like Aimar, Witsel, Saviola (for Benfica) and Hulk (for Porto). Among the young rising stars we can mention the Colombian James Rodriguez (Porto), who moved to Monaco at the end of the season.






The portoguese champions: Porto




At the end of the album we find three special sections: "Top Stars", "Euro Craques" and "Ultimas Acquisiçoes".
Top Stars includes 16 stickers of some of the best League players in action. We find three players for Porto (Rolando, Moutinho, Varela), Sporting Lisboa (Adrien, Martins, Rui Patricio) and Benfica (Luisinho, Miguel Vitor, Carlos Martins).


Euro Craques shows some of the best European Stars in the season that leads to the European Championship (Poland-Ukraine 2012). There are 32 stickers distributed on 4 pages. These are special stickers, with player name and figure on elevation and shining background. For Portugal we find Bruno Alves, Moutinho, Coentrao, Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul Meireles and Pepe.



"Ultimas Acquisiçoes" is the last section of the album and it includes players that were acquired by the teams after the beginning of the season (and the production of the album). There are 36 stickers distributed on 4 pages. Together with the "Cromos Bis" these stickers were introduced in the sticker packets later on during the season. We find 2 players for Benfica (Enzo Perez and Lima), 4 players for Porto (Miguel Lopes, Quinonez, Castro and Kelvin) and 2 players for Sporting (Labyad and Pranjic)



There are 22 "Cromos Bis":

13-Cleyton(Acad)
50-Matic(Benfica)
51-Bruno Cesár(Benfica)
55-Gaitan(Benfica)
59-Kardec(Benfica)
77-Paulo cesár(Braga)
78-Yzalade(Braga)
108-Luciano Amaral(G.Vicente)
112-Tiero(Gil Vicente)
126-Roberge(Martitimo)
133-Rodrigo António (Maritimo)
165-Miguel Rodrigues(Nacional)
179-Keita(Nacional)
198-Yontcha(Olhanense)
237-Iturbe(Porto)
250-Diego Lopes(Rio Ave)
266-Xandão(Sporting)
273-Pereirinha(Sporting)
275-Ismailov(Sporting)
289-Addy(V.Guimarães)
300-Delac(V.Guimarães)
317-Pedro Santos(V.Setúbal)

and 36 "Ultimas Acquisiçoes":

369 Rodrigo Galo, Académica
370 Saná, Académica
371 Wilson Eduardo, Académica
372 Bruno Jorge, Beira-Mar
373 Enzo Pérez, Benfica
374 Lima, Benfica
375 Ismaily, Braga
376 Haas, Braga
377 Michel, Braga
378 Carlitos, Estoril
379 Evandro, Estoril
380 Djalma, Gil Vicente
381 Márcio Rosário, Marítimo
382 David Simão, Marítimo
383 Vinicius, Moreirense
384 Pablo Oliveira, Moreirense
385 Manuel da Costa, Nacional
386 Emiliano Garcia, Nacional
387 Bruno Moreira, Nacional
388 Nuno Reis, Olhanense
389 Rui Sampaio, Olhanense
390 Djaniny, Olhanense
391 Paulo Loureiro, P. Ferreira
392 Miguel Lopes, Porto
393 Quiñónez, Porto
394 Castro, Porto
395 Kelvin, Porto
396 Edimar, Rio Ave
397 Lionn, Rio Ave
398 Del Valle, Rio Ave
399 Labyad, Sporting
400 Pranjic, Sporting
401 Marco Matias, V.Guimarães
402 Baldé, V. Guimarães
403 Miguel Lourenço, V.Setúbal
404 Cristiano, V. Setúbal




Album Details

Full Name: Panini Futebol 2012-13
Publisher: Panini
League: Portuguese League
Number of teams: 16
Stickers per team: 18
Special Sections: - Top Stars (16 stickers)
                            - Euro Craques (32 stickers)
                            - Ultimas Acquisiçoes (36 stickers)
Extra Stickers: - Cromos Bis (22 stickers)

Total number of stickers: 394

Remarkable players included:

Witsel, Aimar, Cardozo, Saviola (Benfica), Hugo Viana (Braga), Moutinho, Lucho, Defour, Varela, Fernando, Hulk (Porto), Rui Patricio, Boulahrouz, Schaars, Capel, van Wolfswinkel (Sporting), Soudani (Vitoria Guimaraes)

Young Stars included:
Ola John, Rodrigo (Benfica), Danilo, Alex Sandro, James Rodriguez, Atsu, Iturbe, Kelvin, Quinonez (Porto), Felipe Augusto (Rio Ave),Viola, Carrillo, Labyad (Sporting), Lalkovic, Ricardo, Baldé (Guimaraes)