Only Good Stickers: Panini Calciatori 2020

The 2019/2020 Serie A started in August 2019 and ended almost one year later with the ninth consecutive title of Juventus (83 points). Second place for Inter (82 points) and third for Atalanta and Lazio (78 points). The top scorer of the season was Immobile (Lazio) with 36 goals. This was the longest football season ever contested in Italy due to the pandemic that stopped the competion from March to June 2020. The same happened for the sticker collection "Calciatori", which was released in December 2019 and it could be completed with the last stickers of the "Film del Campionato" only in September 2020. The album does not differ much from the latest editions. However it was still by far the best quality sticker album of the season, especially the hardcover edition of the album that we present here.

The album begins with an introductory page including the shining stickers of the Serie A logo and the trophies of the Serie A, Italian Cup and Super Cup. Then the 20 Serie A teams are shown in alphabetical order, from Atalanta to Udinese. Each club is displaced over four pages with a total of 28 stickers. In the first two pages the squad is presented with 22 player stickers and the shiny club badge sticker. In the following two pages there are the team photo (two stickers), the home kit sticker, the club bus (two stickers), and two players in action (one metallic sticker). Those pages include also all the player careers and a "Calciatoripedia" with facts and old stories about the club.

After the Serie A clubs there is the usual section with the movie of the season ("Film del campionato"), including 28 stickers (C1-C28). The first five stickers could be found in regular packets, whereas the others were released in a sport newspaper along the season.

The album continues with the section about the winter market ("Calciomercato"). Here there is space for 48 player stickers of the update set released in March 2020. In this section we find among the others Ibrahimovic, Eriksen, Young and Moses.

Then the clubs of the Women's Serie A are shown with 12 team photo stickers over three pages ("Serie A Femminile").

The 2019/2020 Serie B was contested by 20 clubs. At the end of the season Benevento, Crotone and Spezia were promoted to the Serie A. For each club, the collection includes the stickers of the badge (half size shiny sticker), the team photo and 18 players (three players per sticker).

After the Serie B, all the managers of the Serie A and B are included with a total of 20 metallic stickers (two managers per sticker). Then there is a section about the Italian National team preparing Euro 2020. Here we find 15 metallic stickers of players in action (two players per sticker).

The album focuses then on the best players of the league. "Top Performers" shows the best 20 players of the Serie A (one per club) with shiny action stickers, whereas "Top 11" includes the top team of the Men and Women's Serie A with metallic stickers of players in action.

The album ends with the club badge stickers of the Serie C clubs (60 clubs divided in three groups) and the presentation of the Serie D with no stickers.

Back cover of the album

The hardcover album Calciatori 2020

After the interruption due to the pandemic, Panini released a mini-set "Ripartiamo" (Let's start again), including an album of four pages and 20 stickers of players with symbolic Italian monuments. The set was made available on the Italian Panini website. This is not the only extra item of this collection, which includes also rubber erasers of club jerseys ("Gommaglie") sold separately and the packets "Calciatori Gol" that could be won with tickets inside regular packets. Each "Calciatori Gol" packet includes one sticker with a gold Serie A badge and one card with an Idol (a sort of mascot for each club).