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)

Panini Calciatrici 2024

 

Calciatrici 2023/2024 is the official sticker collection of the Italian Serie A for women, published for the second time by Panini. The album is a digital collection that can be completed on the App or website "Panini Digital Collections", with virtual stickers obtained from the codes found in the Calciatori 2024 packets. Once 80% of the digital album is completed, it is possible to purchase the empty album with the complete loose set of stickers for the price of 30€.

The layout of the album is similar to the previous season, with the 10 Serie A clubs shown in alphabetical order and no extra sections with stickers. There are now six pages per club, with additional photos of the players not featured in the sticker collection, but the number of sticker per club is reduced to 20 player stickers, with no club badge or team photo stickers. Therefore, the collection counts a total of 200 stickers.

In the following we show the empty album and the loose set of stickers. The regular season 2023/2024 ended with Roma in the first position; the top goalscorers were Manuela Giugliano and Cristiana Girelli with 9 goals.

Album + complete set of stickers

Michela Cambiaghi moved from Parma to Inter in 2023 and scored 7 goals after 20 caps; Cristiana Girelli is the striker of Italy (54 goals in 111 caps) and Juventus (81 goals in 109 caps)

Roma star players Valentina Giacinti (7 goals in the regular season 2023-2024) and Manuela Giugliano (top scorer of the regular season with 9 goals, together with Cristiana Girelli)

Album details:

Full name: Calciatrici 2023-2024

Publisher: Panini - Digital Collection

App: Panini Digital Collections

Website: click here

League: Serie A Femminile (Italy)

Season: 2023-2024

Number of clubs: 10

Stickers per club: 20

Other sections: No

Total number of stickers: 200