The official sticker collection of the UEFA Champions League for the season 2022/23 was released by Topps in September 2022. The collection features 31 of the 32 clubs in the competition, being Napoli excluded for rights issues. In addition to the regular album, that can be completed with the stickers from packets and the update set, there is also a LIVE album (described below) with stickers from the Champions League 2022/2023, released during the season. For the first time for this series, Topps introduced parallel stickers (with different colours and rarity) of two players per team (for a complete list, see the checklist in the album details below).
The albums starts with the contents and the first three stickers: the logo, the trophy, and the official matchballs. The album continues with a retrospective on the previous Champions League, with the UCL Team of the season (12 shiny stickers of the best players 2021/2022) and 11 stickers of the standout performers in the women's Champions League 2021/2022.
The 26 teams (except Napoli) that directly qualified to the group stage are then shown in alphabetical order. For each club there are 18 stickers, out of which 16 player portrait stickers, the Next Gen sticker with the young promising player of the team, and the shiny Double Impact sticker with a combo of two key players. Regrettably there are no club badge stickers in this edition.
The team section is closed by Tottenham and followed by several special sections. "The global game" explores the different nationalities of the players with 18 stickers of players in action. Among them the Iranian Taremi (Porto), the Japanese Furuhashi (Celtic) and the Canadian Davies (Bayern Munchen). "Best of the Best" is dedicated to the records of the season 2021/22, with eight metallic stickers from the most clean sheets (Alisson) to the top assist maker (Sané). The Champions League overall records are also included with the "All-time records" section (16 stickers), featuring among the others Inzaghi, Maldini, Ancelotti. The album has a double page called "Dream Team" in which is possible to stick spare stickers with the favourite players. The "Legends" section features this year 12 shiny stickers with 11 players (Schmeichel, van Bronckhorst, Baresi, Maldini, Roberto Carlos, Xavi, Iniesta, Gerrard, Del Piero, Inzaghi, Drogba) and the coach Carlo Ancelotti. In this collection, there is space also for the women's Champions League with six stickers of the "Top Superstars" and the Youth League (1 sticker).
Due to the early release of this collection, the teams qualified through the play-offs were not known during the production of the album. In addition, the teams were not updated with the late transfers of the summer 2022. For this reason, there is a large update set of 116 stickers, to complete the album form numkber 545 to 660. In the update set there are the six teams qualified through the player-offs (16 player stickers per team) and 20 stickers with the new signings, featuring Onana, Kessié, Raphina, Aubameyang. In the following we show the empty album with the complete set of loose stickers and the updates to complete the album.
The UEFA Youth League section with one sticker
Back cover of the album
The update set with 116 stickers for the album (from nr. 545 to 660)
For the second time, the champions league sticker collection includes also LIVE stickers, featuring the best moments of the tournament. The previous season the LIVE section was part of the album, whereas for the 2023 edition, there is a separate album of 104 stickers. The album was included in the starterpack, wereas the LIVE stickers were released in 5 batches and they could be ordered from the Topps website.
The album is structured to follow the development of the competition. First, the group stage is shown (24 stickers), followed by the round of 16 (16 stickers), the quarter finals (16 stickers), the semifinals (12 stickers) and the final (12 stickers). In addition there are 24 stickers with the new signings from the winter transfer market. Among them, Cody Gakpo (Liverpool), Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea), Joao Feliz (Chelsea), and Joao Cancelo (Bayern Munchen).
Manchester City won the Champions League 2023/2024 after a tight final against FC Inter (1-0) in Istanbul. Erling Haaland was the top scorer of the tournament with 12 goals.
Back cover of the LIVE album
The LIVE album includes also 24 stickers with the new signings of the winter market
The LIVE stickers of the Champions League final: Manchester City - Inter
The "next gen" stickers of Gavi (Barcelona) and Palmer (Man City)
The rising star Musiala (Bayern) and FC Inter top player Lautaro
PSG superstars Messi and MBappé
Rodri scored in the 2022/23 Champions League final, while Erling Haaland was the topscorer of the competition with 12 goals
Benzema and Vinicius regular shiny stickers
The "green parallel" stickers of Benzema and Vinicius
Album details:
Full name: UEFA Champions League 2022/23
Publisher: Topps
Release: September 2022
Competition: UEFA Champions League
Season: 2022/2023
Number of clubs: 32
Stickers per club:
- 25 directly qualified teams (18 stickers)
- 6 playoffs teams (16 stickers from the update set)
- Introduction (3 stickers)
- 2022/23 UCL Team of the Season (12 stickers)
- 2022/23 Women's CL Standout Performers (11 stickers)
- The Global Game (18 stickers)
- Best of the Best (16 stickers)
- All-time Records (16 stickers)
- ULC Legends (12 stickers)
- Women's CL Top Superstars (6 stickers)
- New signings (20 stickers from the update set)
- UEFA Youth League (1 sticker)
Extra:
- Live set (Album + 104 stickers)
- Parallel stickers
Checklist: click here
Total number of stickers (album): 661
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