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591: Kylian Mbappé, France, Panini UEFA Euro 2020 Official Licensed Sticker Album, Tournament Edition, 444: Steven Gerrard, Liverpool, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10 and 21: Roberto Carlos, Brasil, Panini World Cup France 98

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We celebrate five years of our blog in this post and we would like to start by saying thank you to anyone who has read, shared, commented, contributed or suggested content. It’s insane to think that the Covid-19 lockdowns which inspired this were so long ago and the fact that anyone is still engaging with it now that they have the ability to have actual friends or lives is incredibly flattering. When we started suggesting ideas for this collaborative effort we thought it might be time to be a bit braver than our usual tributes to genuine global icons , club heroes and substitute goalkeepers . Today we come for three players we believe to be overrated. They are clearly all excellent footballers (and we really can’t talk ) and some of them might be really nice blokes (see above) but there’s just something not quite right for us. We’ll start across the Channel with Emlyn Shepherdson-Jones and someone who might prove us all even more wrong than we probably are. When the call came through...
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20: Ian Selley, Arsenal, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

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This post is a leaving present for my colleague Rupert Try who is off to pastures new at the end of the month. Having come across our blog due to my shameless self promotion our subject was the first name he put into the search bar. As an Arsenal season ticket holder it’s good to see Rupert still carries a torch for the Gunners’ mediocre years ahead of the glory that visited Highbury with Arsene Wenger. That or he’s still haunted by the programme images of the man below’s horrific leg break. All the best in the new role mate and I hope this does the trick for you. The Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection was my first proper foray into sticker collecting (having shared the 1994 World Cup book with my sister) and, looking back, it is an absolute treasure trove of 1990s nostalgia. The likes of Simon Rodger , Stuart Nethercott and Ian Walker provide curtains inspiration to rival Nick Carter of The Backstreet Boys while members of Manchester United’s infamous ‘ Class of 92 ’ make ...
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224: Robert Earnshaw, Derby County, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League Official Sticker Collection 2007

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Emlyn Shepherdson-Jones heads to the green green grass of home for a post on a talented Welsh forward with an enviable record in front of goal. We also get a look into the bizarre world of non-licensed pseudonyms in football video games and it’s time to say thanks to EA Sports for their choice for this post’s subject. Yes they could have gone full Konami and renamed the Wales players something like Daffodil019 but instead they got creative and allowed Emlyn and I to make numerous references to WWE giant The Big Show instead. Over to my esteemed colleague with a big bad show tonight y’all. The EA Sports tournament cash grab tie-in, Euro 2000, is a game that has been mentioned once or twice before on this blog – filling hours of evenings in our uni house and also the evening before Manny's wedding. As beloved as the game was to us, the follow-up brought out for the 2008 European Championships was far from spurned – the advance in technology allowing you to use the analog stick on t...
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19: Emmanuel Petit, Arsenal, Merlin’s Premier League 98 Official Sticker Collection

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The various streaming platforms available today mean that it is rare for a show to create the kind of water cooler moments dreamed of by producers and writers. The recent deep dive into the extent of human gullibility that is The Traitors has perhaps come close while the hype around Game Of Thrones meant that its sets across the world became closely guarded especially when famous faces made cameo appearances. Ipswich Town fan, and apparent Sky Sports pundit, Ed Sheeran chewed through the forest scenery while Lovejoy and Deadwood star Ian McShane fared considerably better. He did, however, come under fire from those terrified of spoilers when he revealed the tiniest of hints about his fairly irrelevant scenes. His riposte of “I was accused of giving the plot away, but I just think get a f***ing life. It’s only tits and dragons” hit harder than any of his actual lines. While the likes of Eric Cantona and Vinnie Jones made the transition into Hollywood blockbusters many Premier League ...
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103: Fangzhou Dong, Manchester United, Panini Manchester United 2007/2008 Season Official Sticker Collection

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Mat Jolin-Beech once again sets his sights on Asia albeit without an enviable travelogue attached with a look at a former Manchester United striker you may not have even realised was there. He raises some interesting questions, especially in light of the rise and relative fall of the Chinese Super League, but perhaps overlooks the fact that, as a result of signing Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai, Crystal Palace were briefly the most watched football club in the world in the 1998/99 season. Didn’t stop us being monumentally shite mind. Over to Mat. Workplace lunchtime conversations are an odd thing. They can often be dull, focussing on work stuff, the weather, or at certain times of the year, what everyone’s plans for Christmas are going to be. Seeing family? Going away? Rinse and repeat. If you’re lucky, however, they can take more interesting paths. Somehow, and I genuinely can’t remember how it got onto this, the fact that China had athlete factories ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympics cro...
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193: Lucas Radebe, Leeds United, Merlin’s Premier League 97 Official Sticker Collection

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The cultural impact of David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds’ Euro 96 anthem ‘Three Lions’ is undeniable as proven when any England side in the Gareth Southgate era progressed beyond the group stage of a tournament. If Thomas Tuchel enjoys the similar stratospheric joy of barely surpassing expectations then it will be impossible to hold a conversation in the summer of 2026 without someone informing you “it’s coming home”. That being said it is rarely heard outside of England internationals and only then when there’s more at stake than a Nations League point. Perhaps the real breakout musical success of the football tournament genre was Dario G’s ‘Carnaval de Paris’ released ahead of the World Cup in France in 1998 . Not only did the instrumentation for the song cover more nationalities than a Benetton advert but the earworm melody has been adopted by multiple clubs, and the England team, as a stirring terrace anthem. The dance trio actually gained inspiration for this a...
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18: Robin van Persie, Arsenal, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10

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In the spirit of the season Mat Jolin-Beech brings us some festive fun via the medium of a prolific Dutch striker who scored some truly wonderful goals for club and country during his career. As with many of our posts this has absolutely nothing to do with the card in question and Mat has gone back to his roots and gone all chairman of selectors again . Hopefully this goes down better than your fourth cheeseboard of the weekend. It’s Christmas time, and ‘tis the season for some pun-derful blogging. So why should we here at a Sticker’s Worth 500 Words not jump on this festive bandwagon? A quick WhatsApp later and the puns came rolling in with Emlyn left with 718 unread messages of football related festive nonsense. Serves him right for having a social life. So here we go: a full squad and manager of Christmas crackers. (No, I won’t stop. And yes, I know this is as bad as all of the Dad jokes come 4pm and a few too many beers on the 25th.) The first and most obvious one was the big man h...
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