RUTHERFORD, N.J. – When Landon Donovan was a child, each Christmas he would get a field of Panini soccer stickers. He’d kind by way of the stickers, filling in gaps in his album and attending to see stars usually for the primary time.
It wasn’t simply concerning the expertise — though discovering a sticker he wanted was all the time enjoyable — but it surely additionally was one of many few methods he acquired to find out about soccer gamers from around the globe.
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The entry to soccer data was restricted for the now 43-year-old. The 2 methods he discovered about soccer gamers have been from FIFA and Panini stickers.
“I’d get the packs, and I would sit in my room for hours and open the packs, put the stickers on and I’d find out about gamers and groups that I did not know something about,” Donovan stated whereas at MetLife Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey, on Wednesday. “It was a part of my training.”
Donovan was at MetLife Stadium for Panini’s U.S. and Canada cowl reveal for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup sticker album. The Panini World Cup sticker album made its debut in 1970 and each 4 years sparks a brand new technology of soccer followers.
As Donovan walked into a collection on Wednesday, he was greeted by poster-sized stickers of himself, together with his first in 2002. Donovan is the all-time assists chief with the U.S. males’s nationwide staff and tied with Clint Dempsey because the all-time scoring chief.
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“Getting that first sticker was legitimacy amongst my mates,” Donovan stated. “I feel at that time I would already performed within the Olympics. I had already performed in an under-17 World Cup, however they have been like, ‘No matter.’ Once they have been capable of open a pack and see it, it was like, ‘Oh my God, you are truly an actual participant.’ In my good friend circle, after we have been obsessive about soccer, it was an enormous second.”
Landon Donovan speaks through the Panini America FIFA World Cup 2026 album cowl reveal at Met Life Stadium. (Photograph by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Pictures for Panini America)
(Dave Kotinsky through Getty Pictures)
As soccer continues to develop globally, Panini is wanting towards constructing the worldwide phenomenon of the sticker assortment much more.
It has stored what makes the sticker guide enjoyable with illustration of all of the groups within the World Cup, which is boosted to 48 groups for 2026. However Panini has additionally added collector-type parts akin to parallels for followers to chase. There shall be parallels unique to North America akin to Blue, Pink, Purple, Inexperienced and Black 1-of-1.
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“Panini’s all the time been considered as that spark that ignites the hearth and the thrill for the FIFA World Cup earlier than the match ever begins, which is why it is all the time traditionally been that the Panini album comes out a number of months earlier than the match begins,” Panini senior vp Jason Howarth stated. “So it builds up that pleasure and vitality among the many soccer group and the collector group everywhere in the world.”
With the FIFA World Cup within the U.S., Canada and Mexico subsequent yr, there’s a concerted effort to construct the U.S. and North American viewers for Panini. Wednesday’s occasion debuted the U.S. and Canada album cowl, and the corporate hopes to make the U.S. the No. 1 area in gross sales for 2026.
Traditionally, Brazil has been the highest nation for World Cup sticker gross sales.
“It simply ties into the cultural aspect of the sport a lot and so deeply that it is large each 4 years,” Howarth stated. “I feel we will not envision what it should appear to be. We’ve an thought, proper? However we will not even envision how large it should be right here within the U.S., Canada and Mexico with this 2026 World Cup.”
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The World Cup draw is on Friday with 42 of the 48 groups determined. The ultimate six groups shall be decided within the coming months.
The primary-round video games start June 28.
Whereas a chilly day in December in New Jersey may seem to be an early begin to the World Cup buzz, those that love the game are all in.
“I acquired them as a child for Christmas, now your children are opening them for Christmas,” Donovan stated. “It is actually cool. And it is onerous to elucidate and describe what the attachment is, why it is so thrilling. However for little children it is simply a lot enjoyable.”
Whereas the Panini sticker assortment doesn’t come out till Might, the corporate is providing a particular pre-order by way of Dec. 8 solely on Amazon. The field comes with 50 sticker packs and 7 stickers in every pack together with an album.
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It will not be a vacation reward this yr, however Donovan is aware of when the album comes out, he’ll be scouring the pages and taking a look at all of the gamers together with his sons — identical to he did as a child.
“It is nostalgic, but it surely’s additionally thrilling for me as a result of I’ve children now,” Donovan stated. “My two boys, they’re obsessed, obsessed, obsessed. The notion of worth for my children of those playing cards is exponentially greater than the precise worth.”