Merlin's Premier League 98

We present here the Merlin's Premier League 1998 album. It is the fifth official collection released by Merlin, started with the 1994 edition. This album includes also a special hardcover binder for the sticker album.

Arsenal won the Premier League in 1998, only one point ahead of Manchester United, with Owen (Liverpool), Sutton (Blackburn) and Dublin (Coventry) best scorer of the season (18 goals each).

The album starts with the table of contents on the left page and the first two stickers on the right page: the shining logo and trophy of the Premier League. Then, the 20 teams are showed in alphabetical order. Each team is displaced over six pages, with a total of 24 stickers: the first two pages show the team statistics, the manager photo and include five stickers (shiny club logo, shiny home kit, double team photo, and top scorer). the second two pages show the squad, with 16 player stickers, whereas the last two pages include the photos of the remaining players, more team statistics, and three stickers (internationl player, superstar, and hot shot). 

In the middle of the album we find three special sections: "Swop till you drop" with 8 stickers of players in action, "Merlin's collectors' awards" (8 stickers in action), and "McDonald's enjoy more football" with 6 more stickers (McDonald's logo and 5 action stickers, including Brazilian star Ronaldo).

 

Italian trio at Chelsea: Vialli, Di Matteo and Zola 

Other players from Serie A: Paolo Di Canio, Faustino Asprilla and Attilio Lombardo

 Young English trio: Beckham (22 years old), Owen (18 years old) and Lampard (19 years old)

 Club badges have a nice special material with logo in relief

Album details:

Full name: Merlin's Premier League 98

Publisher: Merlin

League: English Premier League

Season: 1997/1998

Number of teams: 20

Stickers per team: 24

Special section: - Introduction (2 stickers)

                          - Swop till you drop (8 stickers)

                          - Merlin's collectors' awards (8 stickers)

                          - McDonalds enjoy more football (6 stickers)

Total number of stickers: 504

Panini Mexico Apertura 2014 is out!

On September 17, 2014, the new album Panini Liga Bancomer 14 has been released in Mexico. It includes all the 18 teams of Liga MX and the 14 teams of Liga Ascenso of the Apertura championship 2014. 

Album and stickers looks quite similar to the previous album (Liga Bancomer 2013/14). Graphics of player stickers and club logos is similar. A double page with the mascots of Liga MX teams is also included. Ascenso teams have only a double sticker with the team photo and the club logo.

More info on Panini Sport MX (facebook and twitter).

Album and stickers (source ebay)

Liga Ascenso teams have a double sticker with the team photo

Album details

Full name: BBVA Liga Bancomer Apertura 14

Publisher: Panini

League: Mexican Liga MX and Liga Ascenso

Number of teams: 18 Liga MX (Premier League)

                              14 Liga Ascenso

Stickers per team: 17 for Liga MX teams

                                3 for Liga Ascenso

Special sections: Introduction (Logo, ball, trophy)

                            Mascots Liga MX (18 stickers)

Total number of stickers: 369

                               

Merlin's Premier League 2006

Here we present the official sticker collection of the English Premier League, season 2005-2006. The album is published by Merlin and it is an autographed edition, which means that all stickers have a signature of the player. 

The album opens with a foreword of Richard Scudamore and the first two shining stickers: FA logo and trophy. Teams are showed in alphabetical order and each team is displayed over 4 pages with a total of 26 stickers, out of which 5 are big stickers: club badge, team photo, the kits, captain, and star player. The other 21 stickers are normal size player stickers with signatures. Chelsea won the title with 91 points counting on players like Drogba, Crespo,  Cech, Lampard, and Robben.

The finnish player Mikael Forssell (Birmingham City)

Star player sticker of Arjen Robben at Chelsea

Robin Van Persie at Arsenal

Cristiano Ronaldo 20 years old at United

Great couple at Newcastle: Michael Owen and Alan Shearer

Album details:
Full name: Merlin's F.A. Premier League 06
Publisher: Merlin
League: English Premier League
Season: 2005/2006
Number of teams: 20
Stickers per team: 26
Special section: 2 introductory stickers (FA Logo and Cup)
Extra stickers: "Lego Piraka Bionicle" (L1-L6) 

Total number of stickers: 528