sabato 28 marzo 2015

Panini Liga I - Romania



For the season 2014-15 Panini published the first ever sticker album of the Romanian League. The album features all the 18 teams of Liga I. It is a fancy album with 465 stickers and with the same look of the Superleague 2015 (Greek league). The album opens with three introductory shining stickers: the album cover, the Panini logo and the league logo (LPF). Then there is a section with the club logos and the supporters of each team ('Logouri, echipe si fani'). This section is distributed on 6 pages with a total of 54 stickers, three per team. The club logo sticker is silver shining, whereas the supporter photo is composed by a double sticker.







After the logos and the fans, all the teams are showed with a double page that contains 22 stickers: the team photo (two stickers) and 20 players. A nice feature of this album is that for each team there is one player sticker that has a silver shining border. The Romanian league includes historical teams like Steaua Bucarest, Rapid Bucarest, Dinamo Bucarest, and Cluj.













In this album we find several young prospects. At the end of the album there is a double page with the future stars of Romanian football ('Vedeta in devenire'). Twelve players have been selected, each with an action sticker. Among these we have Rotariu (Dinamo Bucarest), Manea (Viitorul), and Kovacs (Universitatea Cluj).



Three young players with a past in the Netherlands: the Georgian (not Jordan as mistaken by Panini) Giorgi Chanturia (ex Vitesse), Martinus Quenten (ex Heerenveen, Sparta Rotterdam, and Emmen), and Nepomuceno (ex Fortuna Sittard)


The three youngest players included: Andrei Ivan (1997) scored is first goal in the league already last season, Ianis Hagi (1998) is the son of the great Georghe Hagi and next season should play for Fiorentina, and Manea (1997) is one of the best prospects

Young prospects (1994 or younger) include in the album:
Claudiu Bumba* (1994, Tirgu Mures), Stefanescu, Popadiuc, and Tabacariu (94, 95, and 94, Ceahlaul), Andrei Ivan* (1997, Craiova),  Nedelcearu*, Filip, Serban, and Rotariu* (96, 94, 95, and 95, Dinamo Bucarest), Enceanu* and Tira (both 1994, Brasov), Cristian Manea*, Adrian Putanu, Bogdan Tiru, and Paul Iacob (97, 94, 94, and 96, Viitorul), Nikolov, Mitrita*, Tanase, Ianis Hagi (94, 95, 94, and 98, Viirotul), Tarnovan (1995, Gaz Metan Medias), Gradinaru and Tudorie (95 and 96, Otelul Galati), Negrescu and Sendoriu (94 and 95, Pandurii), George Mares (1996, Petrolul), Vasile, Rosu, and Balint (95, 94, and 94, Rapid Bucarest), Gabriel Iancu (1994, Steaua Bucarest), Neag and Gravenberch (both 1994, Universitatea Cluj).
*: these players have also an action sticker in the 'Future stars' section

Album details:
Full name: Liga I 2014-15
Publisher: Panini
League: Romania (Liga I)
Season: 2014-2015
Number of teams: 18
Stickers per team: 22
Special section: -Introduction (3 stickers)
                          -Logos and team fans (3 stickers per team)
                          -Young stars (12 stickers)

Total number of stickers: 465
                                      



domenica 22 marzo 2015

Panini Liga 2014-2015


Here we present the official sticker collection of the Spanish Liga for the season 2014-2015. It is a massive album with more than 600 stickers. It is thus the second largest league collection for this season after the Panini Calciatori. Both album and stickers have a large size. Stickers are thick and include both the player portrait and the player in action.
The album opens with the table of contents and than show all the Liga teams in alphabetical order, from Almeria to Villarreal. For each team there are four pages and 25 stickers, which are numbered from 1 to 25 for each team and not continuously as usually in sticker collections. These 25 stickers are 20 players, the team photo, the coach, the logo (shining sticker), the 2013-14 summary, and the star player (shining sticker). As the album has been realease in August, before the beginning of the season, there are update stickers for each team, to replace players that left the team. These update stickers are called 'coloca' (=collocate) as they have to be placed on top of the old sticker, preferably with a special tecnique explained later in this post. Also, to include the new players transferred at the beginning of the season, there is a special section (Ultimos Fichajes) at the end of the album. This section includes 56 new players.
















After the Liga teams, there is a section of three pages about the second division, which includes 22 stickers of the club logos of the Liga Adelante teams.
The last part of the album includes the last transfers ('Ultimos Fichajes'). Among these 56 new players we can find Rakitic (Barcelona), Luis Suarez (Barcelona), Kroos (Real Madrid), James Rodriguez (Real Madrid), Vietto (Villarreal), Vermaelen (Barcelona).







To update the players that left the competition at the beginning of the season, 60 replacement stickers ('Coloca') have been released. These stickers can be glued in correspondance of the substituted player written on the back of the sticker. To preserve both stickers, we suggest to glue the update sticker in the following way (see picture below): start removing the sticker from its paper from the right side and cut away a slice of about 1 cm of the paper; glue the right side of the sticker next to the one to be replaced. In this way you can lift the sticker anytime and see the sticker below,


Di Maria, transferred to Manchester United, has been replaced with De Tomas. The replacement sticker can be glued on the right side to preserve the sticker below.

The two best players on the planet are on this album: Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo

 Two young rookies emerging this season: José Gaya (Valencia) and Munir El Haddadi (Barcelona). 
The youngest players included in this album are Nahuel (Villarreal) and Success (Granada), both from 1996

A curiosity of this album: two stickers have been printed with two different versions. One is the logo of Liga Adelante team Llagostera and the other is the 'Ultimos Fichajes' Luis Suarez. The two versions can be glued one on top of the other with the same technique previously explained for the replacement stickers.



Update stickers ('Coloca'): 60 stickers
Dos Santos, Edgar, Thievy (Almeria), Unai Lopez (Athletic Club), Jesus Gamez, Gimenez, Saul, Cristian Rodriguez (Atletico de Madrid), Munir, Sandro (Barcelona), Ruben, Borja Fernandez (Celta), Inigo Lopez, Ekeng, Crespo, Fidel, Borja Garcia, Matos (Cordoba), Jose Rodriguez, Helder Postiga, Victor Fernandez (Deportivo), Saul, Didac, Boateng (Eibar), Jose Angel, Christensen, Victor Rodriguez (Elche), Joan Jordan (Espanyol), Vigaray, Juan Rodriguez, Michel Herrero, and Babà (Getafe), Hector Yuste, Machis, Success (Granada), Marino and Jesus (Levante), Keylor Navas, De Tomas, Illarramendi (Real Madrid), Ochoa, Torres, Flavio Ferreira (Malaga), Fatau, Aquino, Leo Baptistao (Rayo Vallecano), Granero (Real Sociedad), Kolodziejczak, M'Bia, and Tremoulinas (Sevilla), Yoel, Mustafi, Filipe Augusto, Zuculini, Ruben Vezo, Gayà, and Carles Gil (Valencia), Espinosa and Nahuel (Villarreal), Club badge "Mirandes" to replace "Real Murcia" (Liga Adelante)

Young prospects included in the album (1994 or younger):
Unai Lopez and Laporte (1995 and 1994, Athletic Club), Gimenez, Saul, and Hector (1995, 1994, and 1995, Atletico de Madrid), Deulofeu, Munir, Sandro (94, 95, and 95, Barcelona), Ruben, David Costas, Borja Fernandez, Santi Mina (all 1995, Celta), Jonny and Goldar (both 1994, Celta), Fede Vico (1994, Cordoba), Jose Rodriguez (1994, Deportivo), Christensen and Samu (95 and 94, Elche), Pau and Joan Jordan (both 1994, Espanyol), Vigaray and Velazquez (both 1994, Getafe), Success (1996, Granada), Camarasa (1994, Levante), De Tomas (1994, Real Madrid), Denis Suarez (1994, Sevilla), De Paul, Ruben Vezo, Cancelo, and Gayà (94, 94, 94, and 95, Valencia), Moi Gomez and Nahuel (1994 and 1996, Villarreal), Ricardo Horta (94, Malaga, Ultimos Fichajes), Pasalic (95, Elche, Ultimos Fichajes), Deulofeu (94, Sevilla, Ultimos Fichajes)

Album details:
Full name: Liga 2014-15
Publisher: Panini - Colecciones Este
League: Spanish Liga and Liga Adelante
Season: 2014-2015
Number of teams: 20 Liga
                              22 Liga Adelante
Stickers per team: 25 stickers + update stickers for Liga teams
                                1 sticker for Liga Adelante
Special section: 56 stickers of 'Ultimos Fichajes' (Last transfers) 
Extra stickers: 60 stickers of 'Coloca' (Replacements)
                         2 new versions (Luis Suarez and Llagostera)
                                      
Total number of stickers: 640 



domenica 8 marzo 2015

Topps Bundesliga 2015


The official sticker collection of the German Bundesliga has been recently published by Topps, as usual since the season 2009/2010. This year, for the first time, also the Bundesliga 2 is included, with a club badge sticker and a team photo (no sticker) for all 18 teams.
The album opens with the table of contents on the left and three introductory stickers on the right (Bundesliga logo, trophy of Bundesliga 1 and Bundesliga 2). Then all the teams are showed in alphabetical order. For each team there are 15 stickers displayed over 2 pages: team photo (2 sticker), club badge (metallic sticker), and 12 players.






In the center of the album there is a page with the Fan-Favoriten: one mini sticker per team with the favourite player of the supporters, for a total of 6 stickers (3 mini players per sticker).








After the Bundesliga teams are shown, there is a section about the winners of the previous season (DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga), which includes two stickers: Bundesliga Stiftung and the SuperCup Trophy. Then the Bundesliga 2 teams appear, with three teams per page and a club badge sticker (not metallic) for each club. The last sticker of the album is about Michael Leopold (Sky).






Bundesliga teams are young with rising stars and interesting prospects. This season we have the confirmation of Max Meyer (Schalke) and Calhanoglou (Leverkusen) at the highest level. Sule, Kempf, Werner, and Arnold are growing and showing solid performances.

Two of the best young defenders in Bundesliga:
Sule (Hoffenheim) and Jedvaj (Leverkusen)

Three of the best young  offensive players in the Bundesliga: 
Timo Werner (the youngest included in the album), Max Meyer and Davie Selke

Album details:
Full name: Fussball Bundesliga 2014/2015
Publisher: Topps
Competition: Bundesliga 1 and Bundesliga 2
Season: 2014-2015
Number of teams: 18 of Bundesliga 1
                              18 of Bundesliga 2
Stickers per team: 15 for Bundesliga 1 
                                1 for Bundesliga 2
Special sections: -Introduction (3 stickers)
                            -Fan Favoriten (6 stickers)
                            -DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga (2 stickers)
                            -Sky (1 sticker)

Total number of stickers: 300


Young prospects (1994 or younger) included:

Abdul Baba (1994, Augsburg), Davie Selke (1995, Werder Bremen), Lucas Piazon (1994, Eintracht Frankfurt), Marc-Oliver Kempf (1995, Freiburg), Niklas Sule (1995, Hoffenheim), Tin Jedvaj (1995, B.Leverkusen), Hakan Calanhoglu (1994, B.Leverkusen), Max Meyer (1995, Schalke 04), Timo Werner (1996, Stuttgart), Maximilian  Arnold (1994, Wolfsburg)