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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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380: Stephane Guivarc’h, Newcastle United, Merlin’s Premier League 99 Official Sticker Collection

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In 2017 the country musician Brad Paisley released the album 'Love and War' featuring the track 'selfie #theinternetisforever'. The song is a cautionary tale of the historic tweets that have proven the downfall of politicians, English fast bowlers and several prospective employees. However vanilla your Internet activity may have been those lovely people at Meta do like to remind you of your 'memories' whenever you have a look at Facebook. I can only apologise to the contestants of the seventh series of X Factor and Garth Crooks for some of my misguided grumpiness back in 2010 and I should probably pre-emptively resign my future cabinet position on the off-chance Cher Lloyd becomes leader of the opposition. Occasionally this feature does unearth a more fascinating moment from the past. In September 2011 I was one of a mere five thousand people to witness Calvin Andrew score for Crystal Palace in a 2-1 League Cup win over Middlesbrough. While there is a precedent...
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248: Taribo West, Nigeria, Panini World Cup France 98

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Congratulations then to Rodri for winning this year’s Ballon d’Or following another season of success at Manchester City and victory for Spain in this summer’s European Championships. Some critics suggested he may have been more deserving of the award last year after City’s treble exploits while everyone in anyway affiliated with Real Madrid were so horrified by this coronation ahead of their own Vinicius Jr that they binned off the entire ceremony. Meanwhile Brazil ’s politicians described the perceived snub as “the biggest injustice in history” which is fairly hyperbolic when one considers such hideous phenomena as slavery or genocide. Amidst such controversy it would have perhaps been crass for Rodri to revel in the limelight and extol his virtues as the world’s best player. That being said it was something of a let down when he reeled off a host of bland platitudes such as “I am a very calm person until I get upset. I am just a normal guy, you don't have to be crazy." As ...
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119: Nani, Portugal, FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, Panini Official Licensed Sticker Album

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Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at a player equally capable of brilliance and brain fade with little indication of which you’ll be getting on any given day. Then again it must be hard balancing club and international duties with the pressures of being part of one of the noughties’ biggest boy bands alongside Darren Bent . As Mat says below look at the photos. Some players are great. Some players are not. Some have careers better than their potential led them to have any right to have. Some fail to hit that potential and underwhelm massively. Then there is Nani who, somehow, managed to fall into all of the above. Plus, he is seemingly still playing. I thought he’d retired years ago. But alas, he is still playing and currently (at the time of writing at least) back in his homeland of Portugal with Estrela Amadora. As well as various trophies, he also has the accolades of being a founding member of JLS (seriously, look at photos – he’s in there), and being a full-time wind up merchant. Top o...
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