Panini Stickers and You: A World Cup Obsession That Spans Generations of Fans

Hands trembling, I peeled away the waxy backing of sticker “DEN 9. ” I passed it tremulously to my 4-year old son with the tense delicacy usually reserved for handing off the cores of nuclear weapons. “Don’t screw this up,” my inner monologue implored, while I outwardly reassured my son that he was doing a phenomenal job.

The face of Danish defender Jannik Vestergaard nestled snugly on the page of a flimsy magazine alongside 19 of his countrymen, bringing to an end a four-month nightmare of spreadsheets, cross-country mail, and spending more money at Walgreens than I would ever care to admit. I flipped through the pages, smiling wryly at our accomplishment, and I finally understood the quote: “Alexander wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer. ” My son asked if it was okay if he returned to his Legos.

From the very beginning, I swore up and down that this whole Panini sticker collection wasn’t for me, it was for the kid! Can’t you see how much he really, really loves soccer? Hell, he was even paying attention to putting in the stickers some of the time.

But quickly, it became clear that my pathological desire to complete this sticker book went far beyond. Origins of Panini Stickers View this post on Instagram A post shared by Panini Sport (@panini_sport) The story of Panini stickers begins in the idyllic town of Modena in Northern Italy. Brothers Giuseppi and Benito, arguably the most famous set of Italian brothers in a pre-Mario and Luigi world, gained experience in print sales by working at their mother’s newspaper kiosk.