Only Good Stickers: Panini Brasileiro 2002

giovedì 14 maggio 2020

Panini Brasileiro 2002

2002 was a great year for Brazil, as they won their fifth World Cup in Korea and Japan. At the same time, a new generation of Brazilian players made its debut in the professional football. In the Brazilian championship that started in August 2002 there were very promising rookie players and future football stars in Europe like Dani Alves (Bahia), Kakà (Sao Paulo) and Diego (Santos), in addition to other rising stars like Maicon, Julio Cesar, and Mancini. The Brasileiro 2002 was the last championship with a knockout stage after a regular season. 26 clubs played against each other once, then the best eight teams proceeded to the quarter-finals. Santos won both finals against Corinthians (2-0 and 2-3), winning the 7th title in their history. Luis Fabiano (Sao Paulo) and Rodrigo Fabri (Gremio) were the top goalscorers of the season with 19 goals.

The official sticker album of the league is the 13th "Campeonato Brasileiro" published by Panini, since the first edition in 1990. It starts with a table of contents, a foreword, and the fixtures of the season. All the 26 clubs of Serie A are then shown with 14 stickers each displaced over two pages: the metallic badge, the metallic mascot, the team photo, and 11 players. A special section dedicated to the Brazilian captain Cafu is included in the center of the album.

Cafu was the captain of Brazil in 2002. With Brazil he won two times the World Cup (1994 and 2002) and two times the Copa America (1997 and 1999). To celebrate him, Panini included in the album a four page section with 10 gorgeous metallic stickers of Cafu in action with the National teams and the different clubs where he played. All the stickers are autographed.