EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 146
album: FIFA365 2021 (Panini)
stickers: 449 (1-449)
starter pack: album + 5 packets € 3.90
packet: € 0.80 (5 stickers)
Like every year, yes and not of the Fifa 365 album. Season after season in fact Panini limits something but adds more, certainly you won’t get bored. Let’s go in order, it is assumed the return of the Champions League to Panini and consequent closure of this collection, but in every month of October Fifa365 returns to newsstands.
Of course, this is a FIFA album, the Champions would be a UEFA album but if the clubs presented are almost always “the usual” it is difficult to believe these two albums can coexist if printed by the same publisher.
If we remove the major leagues, there are very few clubs left in the world of football. Also this year we have three English clubs (Liverpool, Manchester City and United), three Spanish clubs (Atletico, Barcelona, Real Madrid), three German clubs (Bayern, Borussia D., Schalke 04), three Italian clubs (Inter, Juventus , Lazio), two French clubs (Marseille and PSG), from the other countries only Ajax, Boca Juniors, Corinthians and Club America.
Little, very little, the list of European missing is significant (primarily the portuguese and the russians) but on the rest of the world we are close to nothing. Just three clubs. It is difficult to think that local editions will be released en masse like in 2016, only the Balkan edition with the S1-S63 stickers of Stella Rossa, Partizan and Maribor is already certain. We could hypothesize an edition with additional South American teams, but last year in Brazil the album was not really released (only the cards), so hopes are vain.
Positive is the presence of 20 players (although updates would be needed ..) divided into 10 stickers, being the large format the quality is not affected. To these must be added 5 extra stickers, golden shield and line-up. This along the lines of what has already been seen in the Adrenalyn of Euro2020, honestly a sticker that does not scream a miracle.
Club’s Lifestyle is an interesting sticker, it is different from team to team (for example the mascot or the tunnel to enter the field, etc.), photos of the squad and a jump in the 80s with the flag sticker like American colleges and the club nickname.
Next to this we have 6 “in action” stickers of the top players with indications of the individual qualities. Each “in action” page contains three teams, a valid choice because it allows you to have the three English, three Italian, etc. together.
Over the years, the most original and interesting parts of Fifa365 have always been the additional pages, the real heart of the album. We have decided to divide them into two blocks:
YES
The Golden World – The opening page with the man records around the world, already seen but always pleasant to find
Planet Football – the Fifa Museum must be visited at least once in a lifetime
NOT
Fifa eWorld Cup – Two pages for the version of the videogames WORLD CUP are really excessive, especially putting these “champions” at the beginning of the album seems a very poor choice. Then maybe it is us who are old and the youngest will appreciate .. mah!
Official Posters – Not being a World Cup album, the stickers of the posters from Uruguay 1930, used on a thousand other occasions, seem only a mere filler
Six Years – The stickers of the covers of the six Fifa365 albums (including this one) do not really understand their meaning or charm. Unless it’s goodbye to this collection
Final part, very short, dedicated to the rest of the FIFA world, in reality only the U17 World Cup and the Beach Soccer World Cup. Ok the lack of tournaments, but the total lack (it seems to us) of women’s football stands out. The page dedicated to the world championship for clubs is embarrassing after the good pages in past editions.
Some more details:
. also for this year, no reference to the year on the back of the stickers, just to help the collector, was it so hard to write 2021 somewhere?
. with all the sympathy one can have for Simone Inzaghi’s Lazio, this year it was right and proper to include Atalanta. An unforgivable mistake
. the increasingly pressing use of the computer to fix photos does not always lead to good results, quite the contrary
. really in Panini have not found a better photo of Cristiano Ronaldo? The one in the center of the Juventus page reminds us of certain films about nerds of the 80s
Fifa365 has lost much of its charm over the years, too bad
(EN)