EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 222
album: CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2021/22 (Topps)
stickers: 756 (1-644, L1-L104, LE S1-LE S8)
starter pack: album + 2 packets + 2 stickers LE S1 e S2 3,99€
multi pack: 8 packets + 2 stickers LE 7,99€
tin box: 9 packets + 4 stickers LE 9,99€
box: 50 packets (10 stickers) 1,00€ each
And now how? Years ago someone suggested we do an article comparing a Panini album with a Topps one to show how much the difference was in favor of Panini. If we were to do it now, they wouldn’t be very happy. The criticisms were finally heard and Topps responded in a big way. Delayed output due to problems with the format of the stickers? If this is the result, delays are welcome!
In reality, the beginning is not the best, the first 34 stickers celebrate the past editions of the Champions League, an image with the cup already seen and avoidable, even if Topps must be given credit for having clearly made them more captivating, especially compared to the previous ones. text is easily readable.
The situation is already improving with the next 32 stickers, which show the championships of all the clubs participating in the final phase of the Champions League. It is not a small detail, it makes it clear that finally Topps has made the album as all collectors were asking, no longer the teams arriving from the playoffs relegated to the bottom but in their place, that is in the reference group, in this way between the other all clubs have the same number of stickers and the same presentation within the album.
The pages dedicated to clubs are appreciated for their graphics, presenting interesting news that differ from the albums of Calciatori, Champions, World Cups or Europeans of the last 30 years, perhaps even more. In fact, the players’ stickers do not have the classic square or rectangular format but an interesting scudetto format. This choice seems to be the cause of the delay in the release of the album, hopefully not in the costs, as we would not want it to be a detail that will not be repeated in the future.
In this way the sticker becomes essential, the rest of the information about the players can be found in the printed part of the album. Of the 16 footballers, the captain’s card is special shiny. However, it is not clear to us why for some teams the photo is a bust while for others it is only a shot of the face. As you can see from the images, the players are already printed on the album, a solution that some like, but we don’t like it too much as it takes a little off the curiosity of discovering the sticker. Although now the photos are sent by the clubs and therefore are the same that we also find in other publications.
In the album there are other interesting details, in addition to the 16 players we find 4 other stickers, two giants with the top players of the clubs reminiscent of the Match Attax cards with the technical characteristics of the footballer, the others are the puzzle sticker of the stadium. Finally! Stadiums are the home of football and fans, right celebrate them. Beautiful printed images of the uniforms, we would have renounced the first 34 stickers of the past seasons to maybe transform the main shirt into a shaped card. The space dedicated to the coach is also commendable, even in this case a sticker would not have been a bad thing, but the album is already long enough and it may not have been contemplated. Or you could make a double card by joining 2 rrainers from the various clubs. Maybe it’s a tip for next year.
Having reached this point, the album is already very complete, with no less than 644 stickers, including the last two dedicated to women’s football. Instead Topps goes further and creates a central part of the album with Live stickers that oblige fans to follow the exclusive releases on the web month after month. Referring to the Topps Now cards, we find 104 numbered stickers L showing the highlights of the most important matches of the season and 24 update stickers for the players who changed their shirts, an absolute novelty for a Champions League album. They will not be released in packets on newsstands but will be on sale on the Topps website starting from December and thereafter from February to June 2022. It is not clear at the moment if a complete set will be on sale at the end of the season.
It is not over yet, in the album we find 8 limited edition stickers that become doubly necessary, as the sticky part above is added to the part below which is also a limited edition card connected to the Macht Attax collection. Numbered from LE S1 to LE S8 they are not found in the packets, the first two are always in the starter pack, the remaining six are found randomly in the multipack and in the tin box, as was already the case with the F1 collection.
Sticker + Card Limited Edition:
S1 Raheem Sterling
S2 Erling Haaland
S3 Luka Modric
S4 Jadon Sancho
S5 Trent Alexander-Arnold
S6 Leon Goretzka
S7 Giorgio Chiellini
S8 Gianluigi Donnarumma
Very valid album, worth noting the good quality of the paper used, including the presence of 5 staples so as to make it compact and solid, the exact opposite of what we saw with the Calciatori 2021. Packet price once again very advantageous , 1 euro for 10 stickers. The only drawback, at least in those we have opened, is the presence of 9 normal stickers and one giant. Taking into account that there are only 32 giants, we can predict a multitude of doubles. The hard to find will probably be others.
20 days from our Top Chart of 2021 albums (from 1 December 2020 to 30 November 2021) we can make ourselves a spoiler and say that, without a shadow of a doubt, this is the sports album of the year. Brava Topps!
(EN)