Panini Liga Bancomer (Mexico) 2017-2018

With Liga Bancomer 2017/18 the Panini series of the Mexican league continues uninterrupted since 2013/14, keeping the blue theme of the cover. Before the edition 2013/14, other five albums were published (1997, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011).

Unfortunately the latest collection shows an impoverishment of this series. The stickers of the mascots and the club badges have disappeared and the general quality of the album (for example the paper) has dropped. The only positive new feature of this collection are the stadium stickers, which show the beautiful and glorious stadiums of Mexico. 

The album starts with the calendar of the season, the foreword, and three shining stickers: the official ball, the trophy of the Liga and the trophy of the Ascenso league.

The clubs of Liga Bancomer are shown in alphabetical order (starting from the Aguilas of América) including 17 stickers each: the stadium, the team photo (two stickers), and 14 players.

After the Liga clubs, there is the section "GoLALAzo", with 12 shining stickers of the best goleador of the league. 

The clubs of the Ascenso league are also included, but with only two stickers each (team photo), missing the sticker of the club badge.

back cover of the album

 Stickers of the stadiums are back after the Mexican album of 2011 (Panini Primera Division Profesional 2011)

The two youngest rookies of this collection: Diego Lainez (born in 2000) of Club America and Tony Figueroa (born in 1999) of Pachuca

Three known faces in Europe: Renato Ibarra (ex Vitesse), the French Gignac and Nicolas Castillo (ex Club Brugge and Universidad Catolica)

Young players in this collection (born 1997 or younger)

Edson Alvarez and Diego Lainez (1997 and 2000, Club America), Erick Aguirre and Tony Figueroa (1997 and 1999, Club Pachuca), Cesar Montes (1997, Club Monterrey), Alexis Vega (1997, Deportivo Toluca)

Album details
Full name: Liga BBVA Bancomer - Apertura 2017 / Clausura 2018
Publisher: Panini
Release: August 2017
League: Mexican (Liga and Ascenso)
Season: 2017/2018
Number of clubs: 18 of Liga and 16 of Ascenso
Stickers per clubs:17 for Liga and 2 for Ascenso
Other sections:

• Introduction (3 stickers)
• GoLALAzo (12 stickers)

Update stickers: No

Total number of stickers: 353

Thai Premier League 2011 (Siam Sport)

Thai Premier League 2011 is the first ever sticker collection of the Thai league and one of the rarest and most mysterious football collections ever released. It includes the 18 clubs of Premier League with a total of 360 stickers. The publisher Siam Sport released a second album for the following season (Thai Premier League 2012). 

The collection 2011 starts with an introduction of two sections without stickers. The first includes information about the clubs and the team photos. The second shows all the club stadiums (only printed). The Premier League clubs are displaced over two pages with 20 stickers each. Other features on these pages, like club badges and trainers, are only printed on the album. 

 Album, box and full set Thai Premier League

clubs and team photos (no stickers) 

Club stadiums (no stickers) 

 Buriram United, winner of the Thai Premier League 2011

Back cover of the album

One box Thai Premier League 2011  (50 packs, 250 stickers)

Sealed packs (front and back)

After all, this is a good quality collection. There are some mistakes  here and there and the cut of the stickers is not always regular, but the album has a decent graphics and it includes at least photos of the teams and the stadiums. It was relatively easy (at least for me) to complete it, with just two boxes of 50 packs each. Unfortunately no club badge stickers are included. A particular feature of this collection is that the name of the international players (both in the album and on the stickers) is not written in the Thai language, but in the Latin alphabet. Another special feature is that the stickers inside the packs are not loose but in a plastic envelope.

The 5 stickers inside a pack are sealed in a plastic envelope

The season 2011 of the Thai Premier League was dominated by Buriram United. They won the title with 85 points, second place for Chonburi with 69 points and third for Muangthong United with 60. Top scorer was the Buriram player Frank Ohandza from Camerun, with 19 goals. The Thai Premier League is filled by international players. Among them a young Frank Acheampong (Buriram), who later moved to Anderlecht (from 2013 to 2017) and to the Chinese league with Tianjin Teda. 

The rookie sticker of Frank Acheampong (18 years old) and the Brazilian Aron da Silva

This collection is rare and mostly unknown and therefore extremely difficult to find. Thanks to a friend I have got two boxes and album and with some (or a lot) of luck I managed to complete a full set from these two boxes. A piece of diamond for my collection!

Album details
Full name: Thai Premier League 2011
Publisher: Siam Sport Syndicate
League: Thai Premier League
Season: 2011
Number of clubs: 18
Stickers per clubs: 20
Other sections: Team photos and stadiums (no stickers)

Total number of stickers: 360