Panini Superfutbol Mexico '97

The album Superfutbol '97 is the first Panini album of the Mexican football. It is a simple collection that includes a selection of the best players of the Mexican league for the season 1996/1997. The players in the album are not divided as usual per team, but per position on the field. There are six categories: goalkeepers, lateral defenders, central defenders, defensive midfielders, offensive midfielders, and forwards. There are in total only 120 stickers of players with no shiny or metallic stickers. It is indeed a very poor collection, but it includes some famous International football stars playing in Mexico at that time. We can mention Leonel Alvarez (Colombia), Schuster (Germany), the Spanish "Michel", Bakero and Butragueno. Panini will be back to Mexico only ten years later with a very much improved collection Superfutbol 2007, including all the Mexican Premier League and five European clubs (Barcelona, Milan, Manchester Utd, PSV, and Stuttgart).

The Mexican Primera Division 1996/1997 was contested by 18 clubs. It was divided in a winter tournament in 1996 won by Santos and a summer tournament in 1997 won by Guadalajara. Top scorers of the winter tournament were Borgetti (Santos) and Carlos Munoz (Puebla) with 16 goals. In the summer tournament the best scorers were Gustavo Napoles (Guadalajara) and Gabriel Caballero (Santos) with 13 goals.

Jorge Campos and Luis Hernandez were the Mexican heroes at the World Cup France 1998. In 1997 they played for Cruz Azul and Necaxa, respectively.

International players of the Mexican league 1996/97: the Colombian Leonel Alvarez (Veracruz) and the Zambian Bwalya (América). Bwalya was named African Footballer of the Year in 1988, with a famous hat-trick against Italy at the Olympic Games 1988.

The Spanish José Maria Bakero (Veracruz) ex player of Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona and "Michel" Gonzalez (Celaya) ex Real Madrid

Two famous football stars of the Mexican league 1996/97: the German Bernard Schuster (Pumas) played for Barcelona and Real Madrid. The Spanish Emilio Butragueno spent all his career at Real Madrid, except three years (1995-1998) at Celaya in Mexico.

The Argentinian Sergio Zarate (Necaxa) and Gustavo Dezotti (Atlas) played both in the Italian Serie A. Zarate for Ancona in 1992/93 and Dezotti for Lazio (1988/89) and Cremonese (1989-1994)

The Mexican National Team stars Borgetti and Zague

Album details

Full name: Superfutbol Mexico '97

Publisher: Panini

League: Mexican

Season: 1996/1997

Sections:

• Porteros (16 stickers)
• Laterales (15 stickers)
• Centrales (23 stickers)
• Medios Defensivos (21 stickers)
• Medios Ofensivos (22 stickers)
• Delanteros (23 stickers)

Checklist: click here

Total number of stickers: 120