sabato 25 aprile 2015

Panini Super Futbol 2007 (Mexico)


In 2007, Panini released an album of the Mexican league. The album included also 5 European teams: Barcelona (with Mexican Rafael Marquez), Manchester United (English champion), Milan (European champion), PSV Eindhoven (Dutch champion with the Mexican Carlos Salcido) and Stuttgart (German champion with the Mexicans Pardo and Osorio). The album opens with the table of content, preface, and the first sticker: the Panini logo. Then, the five European teams are shown. Each team is displayed over two pages with 16 stickers of players (no badges or team photos are included). Here we can find the young Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pirlo, Afellay, and Mario Gomez.







The album continues showing all the Mexican teams of the Primera Divison. There are in total 18 teams, 15 of which are displayed over three pages with 18 stickers + updates, whereas the remaining three teams (Dorados, Leon, Queretaro) have only 9 stickers on one page without updates. For each club there is a silver sticker of the club badge and the rest of the stickers are player portraits. For the last three teams there are two players on each sticker, for a total of 16 players.












This album includes some gems. First, we find two young players that later on became the best of the world: Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have here one of their first stickers. Second, we have the first ever sticker of the rookie Javier "Chicarito" Hernandez. He was 19 years old and debutant for Chivas Guadalajara. 

Messi (20 years old) and Cristiano Ronaldo (22) have both a sticker in this Mexican set

Lucas Barrios (Atlas) had success later on in Europe with Borussia Dortmund. Here we find also the rookie sticker of Javier "Chicarito" Hernandez (Chivas, 19 years old), ex Manchester UTD now at Real Madrid. 

This album includes also un update section. On each Mexican team page (excluded the last three teams that have no update) there is space for 4 extra stickers. The update set ("Actualizaciones") includes thus 60 extra stickers. For each team there are three stickers of players and one sticker with the home jersey, with an exception: for team Puebla there is no home jersey, but instead a sticker of the young mexican Giovani Dos Santos, new signing of Barcelona.

The update sticker set

       The rookie sticker of Giovani Dos Santos is included in the update set together with players and jerseys of the Mexican teams (in the photo the jersey of Pumas)

Album details
Full name: Super Futbol 2007
Publisher: Panini
League: Mexican and European teams
Season: 2007
Number of teams: 18 Mexican and 5 European
Stickers per teams: 16 for European teams
                                18 + updates for 15 Mexican teams
                                  9 for three Mexican teams
Special sections: 1 introductory sticker (Panini logo)
Update stickers: Yes (60 stickers)

Total number of stickers: 438 (including updates)





lunedì 6 aprile 2015

Panini Brasileiro 2014 (Hardcover album)


We present here the sticker album Panini Brasileiro 2014, which includes the Brasilian Serie A and Serie B. Panini Brasileiro is a classic release, which since 2011 has also an hardcover version of the album. The 2014 edition is an elegant album with several special stickers including as usual the mascots of all teams.
Opening the album we find an introduction with the table of contents and the first two stickers: no racism logo ("Somos Iguais") and the album cover.
Before the teams are showed, there are two special sections: football stars ("Eu vim aqui so pra te ver") with 24 shining stickers of the best players of the main Brazilian teams (one player per team) and "Craques do Brasileirao" with the best players and coach of the previous season (2013) for each position on the field, for a total of 12 stickers. There is also a sticker with the Panini Brasileiro 2014 logo on the last page of the album.




Serie A teams are showed in alphabetical order with 16 stickers per team displayed over 2 pages: the logo and the mascot (both silver shining), and 14 players. Cruzeiro won the Brasileirao 2014, winning thus its second title in a row. Best scorer of the championship was Fred with 18 goals. 










Serie B teams are as usual displayed on one page. This year there are two players per sticker instead of three as in the recent albums. For each team we have 8 stickers: the club logo and the mascot (both shining), and 12 players distributed on 6 stickers. We find here new entries like Sampaio Correa, Luverdense and Santa Cruz that were in Serie C the previous season. Joinville won the 2014 league and together with Ponte Petra, Vasco da Gama and Avaì has been promoted to Serie A. America de Natal, Icasa, Vila Nova, and Portuguesa have been relegated to Serie C and thus they will not appear on next Panini Brasileiro 2015 album. Their place will be taken by Macaé, Mogi Mirim, CRB, and Paysandu (promoted from Serie C).





Rookie stickers and young prospects are often found on Panini Brasileiro albums. The following are in my opinion the best young players of the 2014 season (I accept suggestions in the comments): 
Marcos Guilherme (1995), also known as Marquinhos, has played regularly for Atletico Paranaense and also for Brazil national team at the Sudamericano Under 20, where he scored 4 goals in 9 matches. 
Matheus Doria (1994) signed for Olympique Marseille, but in January went back to Brasil (Sao Paulo).
Lucas Silva (1993) one of the best players of the winning team Cruzeiro, signed in January for Real Madrid and he played already several matches in the Liga and Champions League. 
Gabriel (1996), know as "Gabigol", scored 8 goals in Brasileiro 2014 playing regularly for Santos. He played also in the Sudamericano Under 20, with 1 goal in 7 matchers. Will he be the new Neymar?
Gabriel Boschilia (1996) played only few matches for Sao Paulo in the 2014 season (2 goals), but he had an impressive Under 17 World Cup with Brazil in 2013 (6 goals in 4 matches).
One curiosity of this album is the sticker of Ricardo Bueno, which shows a date of birth of 1997, but he is actually from 1987 (Panini mistake) and thus not the youngest player included as one may think.

Marquinhos (1995), Doria (1994) and Lucas Silva (1993, now at Real Madrid)

Gabriel Barbosa (1996, Santos) and Boschilia (1996, Sao Paulo). The sticker of Gabriel is not a "rookie sticker" because he was already included in the album last season.

Two old legends of the Italian Serie A: Amantino Mancini (ex Inter, Roma, Milan) plays now for America Mineiro) and Marcos Assunçao (ex Roma) played for Portuguesa.

Young prospects (1993 or younger) included in the album
Serie A:
Atletico Paranaense: Leo Pereira (1996), Marquinhos (1995), Nathan (1996), Otavio (1994), and Coutinho (1994)
Bahia: Parà (1995)
Botafogo: Doria (1994)
Corinthians: Luciano (1993)
Coritiba: Reginaldo (1993)
Criciuma: Bruno Lopes (1995)
Cruzeiro: Lucas SIlva (1993)
Flamengo: Samir (1994)
Goias: Liniker (1993), Rodrigo (1994), Erick (1994)
Gremio: Tiago (93), Bressan (93), Ramiro (93), Luan (93)
Palmeiras: Leandro (1993)
Santos: Alison (1993), Gabriel (1996)
Sao Paulo: Maicon (95), Rodrigo Caio (93), Boschilia (96), Ademilson (94)
Sport: Erico Junior (1993)
Vitoria: Euller (95), Mansur (93), Jose Welison (95), Willie (93)
Serie B: Victor and Leo (1994 and 1995, Atletico Goianiense), Tonhao (1993, Avaì), Graxa (1993, Bragantino), Robinho (1995, Cearà), Douglas Dias, Pedro Lucas and Fabinho (93, 94 and 93, Icasa), Flavio and Leleu (94 and 93, Nautico), Denoni (1994, Oeste), Rodrigo Mann, Julio Cesar, Lucas Parà, and Serrato (93, 94, 94, and 94, Paranà), Daniel Borges and Alef (93 and 95, Ponte Preta), Gabriel Xavier (1993, Portuguesa), Luan and Thalles (93 and 95, Vasco), Julio Cesar, Arthur, Hugo, Leonardo, and Gustavo (95, 93, 93, 96, and 96, Vila Nova).


Album details:
Full name: Campeonato Brasileiro 2014
Publisher: Panini
League: Brazilian (Serie A and Serie B)
Season: 2014
Number of teams: 20 for Serie A and 20 for Serie B
Stickers per team: 16 for Serie A teams 
                              (except Atletico Paranaense with 15 stickers)
                               8 for Serie B teams
Special sections: Introduction (2 stickers)
                            "Eu vim aqui so pra te ver" (24 stickers)
                            "Craques do Brasileirao" (12 stickers)
                            Panini Brasileiro logo (1 sticker)

Total number of stickers: 518