Panini World – Panini has released an updated World Cup sticker set featuring Neymar Jr and more players, pushing the total to 980 stickers. With seven-card packs at £1.25, collectors may need hundreds—or up to £2,000—depending on luck.
A summer ritual for millions of football fans is set to get brutally expensive: Panini’s World Cup sticker albums are about to demand deeper pockets from families trying to finish the collection.
Panini has released an updated set of World Cup stickers ahead of the tournament, adding more players to the book. The new update includes Brazilian superstar Neymar Jr, alongside other high-profile names. With 48 teams competing at football’s premium event this summer, there are more players—and more stickers—to chase.
In total, Panini’s World Cup book now features 980 stickers, including 68 “special” editions for stars such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Panini says the update comes on the eve of the tournament, with more than 120 extra cards added featuring players including Neymar and Manuel Neuer.
Each retail pack contains seven stickers and sells for £1.25 in British stores. Completing the 112-page album—an outcome many parents hope for quickly—has been estimated at £175 even with almost implausible luck.
For families without that luck, the cost can climb sharply. It has been estimated that it could take as much as £2,000 to find every single player included in the sticker book.
The stickers have long been a World Cup staple, tied to Panini’s half-century partnership with FIFA. In 2021, a 1979 Panini sticker of Maradona sold for £470,000 at auction. A completed 1970 album—the first collection released by Panini—sold for about £10,000 in 2017.
Yet the current cycle may be the last era of Panini albums in the way fans know them. Panini’s World Cup sticker albums will be consigned to the history books in 2030 after FIFA announced a partnership with Fanatics last month. FIFA said it extended an agreement with Fanatics to cover collectibles, including its tournaments and events from 2031.
Fanatics is the parent company of collectibles brand Topps. Topps will produce exclusive FIFA stickers from that year following the long-term licensing deal.
Gianni Infantino said at the time: “Across the sports landscape. we see that Fanatics are driving massive innovation in collectibles that provides fans with a new. meaningful way to engage with their favourite teams and with their favourite players.” He added: “So. from Fifa’s point of view. we can globalise that fan engagement precisely thanks to our global tournament portfolio. And this provides another important commercial revenue stream that we channel back, as always, into the game, into football.”.
Sticker prices are rising as FIFA faces fresh pressure over ticket costs at this summer’s tournament. Earlier this week. the last remaining tickets for the final at New York’s MetLife Stadium were listed for as much as £24. 600. leaving many supporters priced out. FIFA has said it could generate around £2.24billion from ticket and hospitality sales throughout the tournament—three times the figure achieved at the World Cup in Qatar.
FIFA has maintained that its ticket approach covers “a broad range of price points” and, after widespread criticism, made cheaper tickets available at the last minute. Still, the threat of empty seats remains, particularly during the group stage.
Panini World Cup stickers Neymar Jr Manuel Neuer Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo FIFA Fanatics Topps Gianni Infantino sticker album cost