12: Phil Babb, Liverpool, Panini Football Sticker Album, The Official PFA Collection, A-Z of ALL the Top Players from All the Top Teams in ‘97

In terms of sponsorship, the 1990s was a simpler time. There was not a sleeve sponsor or official grooming product in sight. The Premier League was sponsored by a mediocre lager, the FA Cup was sponsored by a company that was half bookies, half mail order catalogue and all of your Premier League sticker needs were covered by Merlin (the company, not the Arthurian wizard).

So quite what Panini, the dethroned giants of the football sticker world, thought they were doing with this particular album I have no idea. As I recall it came free with Match or Shoot one week with a few packs of free stickers which, in turn, proved harder to track down than hand sanitiser or bog roll in your local Tesco. If anyone completed this particular album they deserve to be on the next honour’s list.

There are two reasons why I still have this particular piece of football memorabilia in my house. The first is that I have inherited a family trait of being unable to throw anything away that might be of interest in the future. The second is that this is a treasure trove of useless, and probably inaccurate, information. Rather than having the players divided into their respective teams, they are arranged alphabetically by surname and dressed in what can only be described as a smock bearing the logo of the Professional Footballer’s Association, which is essentially the football trade union. Workers of the world unite!

So what does this masterpiece reveal about Phil Babb? As well as the usual personal information, club history and honours we are treated to a little of the Liverpool centre-half’s backstory. Apparently Babb was “shown the door by Millwall as a youngster and it looked as though his career was over before it had started.” Dramatic. Luckily for our plucky hero we meet him as “one of the most expensive defenders in British history”, having cost Liverpool £3.5m to prise him away from Coventry, and with 20 caps for Ireland under his belt – including four at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA.

Yet this rags to riches story is not the piece de resistance of this album entry. Each of the players is quoted directly giving them an opportunity to tell us more about their interests outside of football or future plans. Sadly Homes Under The Hammer star Dion Dublin says nothing about inventing the Dube or investing in property. But I digress.

Phil Babb’s quote borders on prophecy as he states that “one day I shall probably become a journalist.” It’s hard not to respect this clarity of vision, especially without any supporting context. Yet in 2006, two years after his retirement from football, he stepped in to save Golf Punk magazine from liquidation and in 2008 launched Football Punk as a “thinking man’s” publication on his prior profession. Proof that dreams can come true. It’s just a shame that a man who clearly had talents outside of the beautiful game, and won trophies in England and Portugal, will always be best remembered for sliding into a goalpost and injuring his balls.