Panini SuperSport HNL (Croatia)

 

SuperSport HNL 23/24 is the first Panini album of the Croatian league. Panini explores a new market producing the official sticker collection of the 2023/2024 season. The album features the 10 clubs of the first division (Hrvatska Nogometna Liga - HNL) and also a section with the club badge stickers of the second division (Prva Nogometna Liga - PNL).

The album begins with the contents and an introductory page including four shiny stickers: the league logo, trophy, cup, and official ball. Before showing the HNL clubs, there are four special sections over six pages. The first section is dedicated to the club captains, with a total of ten shiny stickers of players in action, the second section features the best players (one per club) with 10 stickers in action, and the third includes the rising stars (one per club) with ten stickers of players in action. The last section shows the best moments of the previous season, with 10 stickers featuring the HNL champions 2022/2023 (Dinamo, two stickers), the second place (Hajduk) the third place (Osijek), and the fourth place (Rijeka), the cup winners (Hajduk, two stickers), the derby Dinamo-Hajduk 4-0, the top goalscorers of the HNL (Marko Livaja with 19 goals) and the topscorer of the Croatian Cup (Josip Drmic).

The 10 clubs of the HNL are then shown one after the other starting from the title owner GNK Dinamo. For each club there are 26 stickers displaced over two pages. In the first two pages the players of the squad are shown with 20 player portrait stickers, whereas in the following two pages there is a focus on the club with data, statistics, and six stickers: the shiny club badge, the home shirt, the team photo (two stickers) and two star players in action.

After the HNL, there is the section dedicated to the second division (PNL), with the shiny club badge stickers of the 12 competing clubs. The last page of the album is about the history of the tournament, with the shiny sticker of the Nogometne Ikone (Football icons). Here we find the information of the best top scorer in the history (Davor Vugrinec, 145 goals), and by season (Eduardo da Silva, 34 goals).

This collection includes some players that became famous in the Italian Serie A, Livaka (ex Inter), Trajkovski (ex Palermo), Pjaca (ex Juventus), and interesting young prospects, like Baturina and Pukstas. In the following, we show the pictures of the empty album with the complete set of loose stickers.

Back cover of the album

Shiny action stickers from the section "Best players": Marko Livaja (ex FC Inter) and Pjaca (ex Juventus)

From the section "Rising stars": Martin Baturina (16/2/2003) played regular for Dinamo in 2023/24 and he made his first appearances with the national team. 

Marko Livaja action and regular stickers. 

International players: Trajkovski (104 caps and 16 goals for Palermo in Italy) from Macedonia and the young American Rokas Pukstas (25/8/2004)

Album details:

Full name: SuperSport HNL 23/24

Publisher: Panini

League: Croatia (HNL and PNL)

Season: 2023/2024

Number of clubs and sticker per club:

• HNL (10 clubs, 26 stickers)
• PNL (12 clubs, 1 sticker)

Other sections:

• Introduction (4 stickers)
• Kapetani (Captains, 10 stickers)
• Najbolji igrači (Best players, 10 stickers)
• Nadolazeće zvijezde (Rising stars, 10 stickers)
• Trenuci za pamćenje 2022/2023 (Moments to remember, 10 stickers)
• Nogometne Ikone (Football icons, 1 sticker)

Checklist: click here

Total number of stickers: 317

Merlin's Premier League 99

 

Merlin's Premier League 99 is the official sticker collection of the English Premier League, produced by Topps under the label "Merlin Collections". It is a large album of 546 stickers with an extra poster of 11 stickers. In addition, a transfer update collection was released in the spring 1999, including a new album and 67 stickers. 

Premier League 99 begins with the contents and an introductory page with the foreword and the first four stickers: the Premier League logo, the trophy, and the 1997/98 Champions (Arsenal, two big size stickers). The Premier League clubs are then shown in alphabetical order. For each club there are 26 stickers displaced over six pages. In the first two pages we find the club badge (special embossed sticker), the home kit (shiny sticker), the top scorer in action and the team photo (two stickers). In the following two pages the squad is shown with 16 player portrait stickers and in the last two pages we find the stickers in action of the new signing, the fan's favourite (shiny sticker), the World Cup star (big size sticker), the superstar, and the key player (shiny sticker). In addition there are four mini-portraits printed on the album, with four additional players of the squad.

A special poster ("Millennium Ty-Phoo Super Squad") is stapled in the center of the album. The 12 stickers of this poster (T1-T12) with players in actions are not part of the collection, but could be found in packets of Ty-Phoo tea. In the center of the album there are some special sections. "McDonald's Quiz" features six stickers, with the McDonald's logo and five players in action. "Merlin's Collectors' Awards" includes 11 stickers of the most voted stars of the 1997/98 season, among which Schmeichel, Owen, and Beckham. There are also some pages sponsored by Lego Technic featuring, however, only one sticker with the Lego Technic Slizer logo.

After resuming with the second part of the Premier League teams, the album ends with one page dedicated to the Merlin's Swap Shop Tour 99, in which there are the last four stickers of this album, with goal celebrations (Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers, Liverpool, and Sheffield Wednesday).

The 1998/1999 season was historical for Manchester United, who won three titles: the Premier League, the F.A. Cup, and the Champions League defeating Bayern Munchen in an epic final (2-1).

The section Merlin's Collectors' Awards

The poster stapled in the center of the album

The second part of the section "Merlin's Collectors' Awards"

Back cover of the album, where it can be seen that the album is published by Topps

The club badge stickers from Merlin's Premier League 99 are special embossed stickers

Yorke (Manchester Utd) and Hasselbaink (Leeds) were the top scorer of the Premier League 1998/1999 together with Owen with 18 goals

Italian stars for Chelsea: Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola

More Italians from Merlin's PL 99: Marco Materazzi (who scored in the 2006 World Cup final) and Paolo Di Canio, who received an 11-game ban during the 1998/99 season for pushing the referee Paul Alcock to the floor. 

Michal Owen (regular and shiny stickers), scored 18 goals for Liverpool in the 1998/99 Premier League

David Beckham stickers from the Manchester United club pages: portrait and shiny in action stickers

Album details:

Full name: Merlin's Premier League 99

Publisher: Topps

League: English Premier League

Season: 1998/1999

Number of clubs: 20

Stickers per club: 26

Other sections:

• Introduction (4 stickers)
• McDonald's Quiz (6 stickers)
• Merlin's Collectors' Awards (11 stickers)
• Lego Technic (1 sticker)
• Merlin's Swap Shop Tour 99 (4 stickers)

Extra: Poster "Millennium Super Squad" (11 stickers, T1-T11)

Update: Premier League 99 Transfer Update Edition (Album+67 stickers) 

Checklist: click here

Total number of stickers: 546 (Album)