Merlin's F.A. Premier League 2003

In the Premier League 2002/2003, the defending champions Arsenal got the second place, five points behind Manchester United, the club of David Beckham and the top goal scorer of the season Van Nistelrooy (25 goals). The Red Devils won their eight Premier League title in eleven years. Their future striker Wayne Rooney made his debut in the Premier League at 17 years old with Everton. He scored 6 goals in 33 appearances with the Toffees. 

The official sticker collection of the Premier League 2003 is published again by Merlin, being the 10th edition since 1994. It is again an autographed edition, like the previous album 2002, in which all the player stickers are autographed. 

The collection begins with the contents and an introduction including the shiny stickers (large size) of the Premier League logo and trophy. The 20 competing clubs are shown in alphabetical order from Arsenal to West Ham. For each club there are 28 stickers displaced over six pages. In the first two pages the club is presented with data, statistics, and four stickers: the shiny badge, the team photo, and two players in action (at least one of the two is shiny). Except for the badge stickers, the other three are large size stickers. In the following four pages, 24 players of the squad are included with 24 portrait stickers. Statistics and careers of each player are printed on the album. This collection includes the rookie stickers of Peter Crouch (Aston Villa) and Wayne Rooney (Everton).

In the center of the album there are two special sections. The first covers the kits of the 20 premier league clubs for the season 2002/2003. The home kits are half shiny sticker each, for a total of 10 shiny stickers for this section. The second section is about the "All-time F.A. Premier League Records". Here there are six stickers about the most clean sheets (David Seaman), the unbeaten runs (Arsenal), the most appearances (Gary Speed), the youngest player (Wayne Rooney), the record transfers (Rio Ferdinand) and the top goal scorer (Alan Shearer, shiny sticker). The image of the fastest goal (Ledley King, Tottenham) is only printed on the album. In this section there is then the second sticker of the rookie Wayne Rooney.

In the last page there is space for the sticker "Certificate of Completion" released at the Merlins's swap shops.

Back cover of the album

The shiny club badge stickers of Merlin's Premier League 2003

The shiny stickers of "The Kits" section: Man City and Man United

The young Peter Crouch (21 years old, Aston Villa) and the experienced Alan Shearer (Newcastle)

French stars in Premier League: Marcel Desailly and Youri Djorkaeff

Italians of the Premier League 2002/2003: Gianfranco Zola and "Big Mac" Maccarone

The rookie sticker of Wayne Rooney (17 years old, 33 caps and 6 goals in his first PL season) and Michael Owen

Portrait and shiny action stickers of David Beckham

The top goalscorers of the Premier League 2002/2003: Ruud Van Nistelrooy (25 goals) and Thierry Henry (24 goals)

Album details

Full name: F.A. Premier League 2003

Publisher: Merlin

League: English Premier League

Season: 2002/2003

Number of clubs: 20

Stickers per club: 28

Other sections:

• Introduction (2 stickers)
• The Kits (10 stickers)
• All-time Premier League records (6 stickers)

Checklist: click here

Total number of stickers: 578

Panini Scottish Premier League 2002

In the season 2001/2002, Celtic won the fourth edition of the Scottish Premier League being able to confirm the title won in the previous season, when they successfully completed a "Treble" (Scottish Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup). The Rangers could get at least the FA Cup 2002 (3-2 against Celtic) and the League Cup 2002 (4-0 against Ayr).

The Panini album Scottish Premier League is the ninth album dedicated solely to the Scottish league since 1992. The album begins with the contents and four introductory stickers: the shiny logo, the shiny trophy and two stickers with the review of the previous season. 

The 12 clubs of the Scottish Premier league are then shown in alphabetical order, from Aberdeen to St.Johnstone. For each club there is a large selection of 34 stickers over six pages. In the first two pages there are the stickers of the club badge (shiny), home kit (shiny), away kit, team photo (two large size stickers), stadium, manager, and the top scorer of the team (large size sticker). In the next two pages, the squad is presented with 16 portrait stickers. In the last two pages we find 10 stickers of players in action, focusing on different player features: the defender, the International hero, the fans favourite, the midfield dynamo, the key player, the safe hands, the big match up (two stickers), and the goals to remember (two stickers). The key player and the International hero are shiny stickers, whereas the midfield dynamo is a large size sticker.

In the center of the album we find two special sections. The first is "Guess who?", with 8 stickers of players in action. Here you need to guess 8 players of the league with help of three clues printed on the album. The stickers provide the solutions. The other section ("The Scottish Treble") is entirely dedicated to Celtic Glasgow that won the Treble the season before (Scottish Premier, FA Cup, and League Cup). There are 12 celebrative stickers in this section, out of which two shinies.

The last page and section of the album is dedicated to the Scotland's Hottest Scorers. Panini salutes them with 6 shiny stickers in action: Larsson, Dodds, Wallace, Albertz, Viduka, and Winters.

Back cover of the album

Scottish stadiums are legendary, they deserved to be part of this collection. Here the stickers of the Celtic Park and the Easter Road Stadium

The kit stickers of this collection. The home kit is a shiny sticker, the away kit a regular one.

The top goalscorer of the Scottish Premier League 2001/2002 (29 goals): Regular and "Scotland's Hottest Scorer" stickers of the Swedish Henrik Larsson

The gorgeous shiny badge stickers of this collection

The Norwegian striker Tore Andre Flo, regular and "big match up" stickers. He scored 18 goals in the league 2001/2002 (3rd position): "Going with the Flo!"

Iconic strikers: Claudio Caniggia (50 caps and 16 goals with Argentina) and Shota Arveladze (ex player of Ajax, where he scored 55 goals in 96 games)

Regular and Fans Favourite stickers of the Italian Lorenzo Amoruso (Rangers)

Regular and shiny Key Player stickers of the Dutch Ronald de Boer (Rangers)

Album details

Full name: Scottish Premier League 2002

Publisher: Panini

League: Scottish (Premier League)

Season: 2001/2002

Number of clubs: 12

Stickers per club: 34

Other sections:

• Introduction (4 stickers)
• Guess Who? (8 stickers)
• The Scottish Treble (12 stickers)
• Scotland's Hottest Scorers (6 stickers)

Checklist: click here

Total number of stickers: 438