A visible feast for sticker fanatics

Panini Legends, a brand new e book concerning the cult of soccer stickers, options 85 icons corresponding to Pelé, Diego Maradona, Franz Beckenbauer, and Bobby Moore in addition to Lionel Messi, Marta, Kylian Mbappé, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Alexia Putellas, amongst many others.

Written by Greg Lansdowne, every of the 85 stars featured features a number of pictures of the participant as featured in Panini stickers from his or her profession. Plus there’s a brief biography and a listing of which Panini albums the star seems in. For the stickers of the celebs which can be extra collectible, the e book contains perception into how a lot a few of these particular person stickers have offered for at public sale.

Whereas that includes legends worldwide, the e book is actually extra British-centric. For instance, the primary six of the seven gamers featured are British. Keegan, Dalglish, Bale, Gascoigne, Lineker, and Beckham. The exception is Diego Maradona. It will have been extra attention-grabbing to unfold the British stars all through the e book as a substitute of being so very British-heavy within the opening pages.

Nonetheless, there are many different gamers to flick through of gamers from all over the world.

Panini Legends e book evaluate: Is it price buying?

Superbly illustrated, Panini Legends is extra useful as a reference e book, stocking stuffer, or collector’s merchandise for lovers who accumulate Panini soccer stickers. Definitely, nevertheless, the opening a number of pages the place it discusses the rise in recognition of Panini soccer stickers is attention-grabbing, notably the curiosity in stickers for girls’s soccer competitions such because the Ladies’s World Cup.

General, although, it’s greatest skilled as a e book to flick by way of. Every participant’s historical past in Panini stickers isn’t must-read materials even for somebody like myself who’s obsessive about amassing Panini stickers.

So, the e book finally ends up being extra visually interesting than an attention-grabbing learn. For a lot of followers, that’s positive in itself. It’s the best espresso desk e book for diehard soccer followers.

Talking of visuals, it’s eye-opening to see how some gamers look so totally different from 12 months to 12 months within the Panini stickers. You may see Thierry Henry virtually rework his look within the pages of this e book. Then again, Mo Salah seems the identical now as he did in his early Panini sticker pictures at Fiorentina and AS Roma.

All in all, there are greater than 900 stickers featured within the e book, so there’s a lot to have a look at even when the studying is much less attention-grabbing.

MSRP $24.00; 240 pages. Accessible on Amazon and at different positive booksellers.