2012-2013 Match Attax Football

 For those of you who are interested 2012-2013 Match Attax Football go on sale on Thursday 27th September. These cards are from a preview pack available with Match of the Day magazine.

There are over 500 cards to collect including new Stadium cards, Super Skills, Star Signings, plus Legends, 100 club and Man of the Match cards.
There will also be some Limited Edition cards available in magazines and various accessories but are yet to be revealed.

2010/2011 Match Attax Football

They're back. Slightly different but still collectable.
This year there are 465 cards to collect. Thankfully for those of us who like cards in a nice tidy order, Topps chose to number the cards - in the top right hand corner.
Of the 465 there are 360 team base cards, that is 16 base cards and 2 foil cards for each of the 20 Premiership teams. Plus 20 manager cards and 1 referee card!
Topps introduced a further 'chase' card set called Showboat foils. There are 20 Showboat to add to the 60 Man of the Match rainbow foils and 4 100 club rainbow foils.
There are 5 limited edition cards scattered around 1 per in collectors tin, collectors magazine, starter packs , 'Lucky Packs?' and an edition of Match magazine.
Some retailers have Club Crest foil cards in special 7 card packs.
There is also a 100 signed silver foil Rio Ferdinand cards and 1 signed gold card. Good Luck finding those!
I purchased 6 of the retail card packs, which contain 6 cards and a foil team crest.

Pack 1:

#68 Brett Emerton Blackburn Rovers

#102 Ricardo Gardner Bolton Wanderers

#321 Frederic Piquionne West Ham

#324 Carlton Cole West Ham

#369 Damien Duff Fulham Showboat

#447 Alex McLeish Birmingham City manager

#R9 Fulham Crest

Pack 2:

#19 Brad Friedel Aston Villa

#66 Keith Andrews Blackburn Rovers

#207 Ji-Sung Park Manchester United

#213 Javier Hernandez Manchester United foil

#295 Pablo Ibanez West Bromwich Albion
#352 Greg Halford Wolverhampton Wanderers

#R1 Arsenal crest

Pack 3:

#20 Carlos Cuellar Aston Villa

#49 Keith Fahey Birmingham City

#58 Gael Givet Blackburn Rovers

#81 Stephen Husband Blackpool

#194 Yaya Toure Manchester City

#457 Chirs Houghton Newcastle manager
#R11 Manchester City crest

Pack 4:

#10 Jack Wilshere Arsenal

#271 Heurelho Gomes Tottenham Hotspur

#269 Frazier Campbell Sunderland

#312 Daniel Gabbidon West Ham
#360 Sylvan Ebanks-Blake Wolverhampton Wanderers
#365 Charlie Adam Blackpool showboat

#R17 West Bromwich Albion crest

Pack 5:

#65 David Dunn Blackburn Rovers

#164 Paul Konchesky Liverpool
#177 Ryan Babel Liverpool

#199 Edwin Van Der Sar Manchester United

#335 Hendry Thomas Wigan

#355 Matthew Jarvis Wolverhampton

#R8 Everton crest

Pack 6:

#134 Jack Rodwell Everton

#145 Mark Schwarzer Fulham

#246 Rory Delap Stoke

#332 Ben Watson Wigan

#410 Fernando Torrez Liverpool Man of the Match foil

#454 Roy Hodgson Liverpool manager

#R13 Newcastle crest

I have no affiliation to any premiership team, so for the fourth year running I will collect the whole base set.

Through the contacts I have made in the USA, Fulham appears to be the most popular team amongst American collectors followed by Everton. Wondering whether Liverpool will rise in popularity if the Boston Red Sox owners planned purchase of the club goes through.

Match Attax World Cup Edition

There are only 60 days until the start of the Football World Cup in South Africa. The World Cup fever that descends across England has already started; predictions of raising the FIFA trophy as winning finalists, concerns that England have some great players just not a great squad, player infidelity/injuries, will the girlfriends/wives be allowed to attend and so on. However all English football fans look towards the first game of Group C on the 12th June, that just happens to be England verses the USA.
At present there are 3 different 'World Cup' card/sticker sets available to collect. Topps foray into the football market continues with Match Attax World Cup Edition.
A unique feature for this set, which is not unusual to US collectors, but almost unheard of this side of the pond, is a supermarket special edition pack. The supermarket that has secured this exclusive is TESCO's, who appear to have their fingers in almost every single pie - mobile phones, Internet, insurance, clothing, food! and now collectable trading cards. No extra publicity however, these packs will be referred to as 'International Legend packs'.
I purchased 5 packs on a recent shopping trip. They weren't hard to miss, a massive display as you entered the store. Each of the International Legend packs has 7 cards, the regular packs contain 6 cards. What did the five 'Legend' packs reveal...

Pack 1:

Sir Geoff Hurst England International Legend

Rafael Van Der Vaart Holland

William Gallas France

Nikola Zigic Serbia

Vincente Del Bosque Spanish Manager

Carlos Pavon Honduras

Aaron Lennon England

Pack 2:

Marco Van Basten Holland Star Legend

Fabio Capello England manager

Theofanis Gekas Greece

Waldo Ponce Chile

Carlton Cole England

Wes Brown England

Wayne Rooney England MOM

Pack 3:

Marcel Desailly France International Legend

Jong Tae-Se Korea DPR

Karim Ziani Algeria

Mark Schwarzer Australia

Arthur Boka Ivory Coast

Marcus Tulio Tanaka Japan

Clint Dempsey USA Star Player

Pack 4:

Zico Brazil International Legend

Micheal Ballack Germany

Eduardo Portugal

Fabio Grosso Italy

Iker Casillas Spain

Bakary Sagna France

Park Si-Jung Korea Republic Star Player

Pack 5:

Franz Beckenbauer Germany International Master

Gilberto Silva Brazil

Jean Makoun II Cameroon

Dunga Brazilian Manager

Wayne Bridge England

MacBeth Sibaya South Africa

Stephen Appiah Ghana Star Player

I must admit to liking these special inserts, some brilliant names from the World of football past. I did purchase 1 additional (non-special insert) pack containing 6 cards.

Park Ji-Sung Korea Rebublic Star Player

Robert Koren Slovenia

Marek Hamsik Slovakia

Ramon Nunez Honduras

Serdar Tasci Germany

Arien Robben Holland

If I do decide to purchase any further packs, they will be the International Legend packs. For some reason, I'm sure it is psychological, the packs appear to be lacking without the legend insert. As always if your interested in any packs or packs just e-mail.

2009/2010 Topps Match Attax

There are a few readers out there who have, in the past, shown an interest in these cards, mainly for the American born players and a few who support a particular English club.

For the third year running Topps have released the 'Match Attax Trading Card Game' series of collectible cards. For the past two years Topps has seen unprecedented popularity for this set, mainly in the UK. This year, however, they have decided to go global. Whether that means these cards will be available in the US or Canada I am not sure but they are advertising swap and play events in Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Australia.

The presentation of the cards has changed very little;

There are 444 cards to collect, 425 last year,
There are 6 cards per packet,
The predominate colour for this years set is orange, rather than the blue Topps has used for the last two years,
Inserts include Man of the Match and 100 Club 'rainbow' foils,
New Inserts included this year are manager cards and i-cards (similar to the Topps Attax baseball) with redemption codes,
There are 100 Theo Walcott (Arsenal) and 1000 Shey Given (Manchester City) autographs inserted into LUCKY packs,
There are 7 Limited Edition cards available in starter packs, collectors tins, collectors guides and available in some football related magazines for a short time. Interestingly two stores are also giving away limited edition cards (while stocks last, naturally).

Currently eleven American born players are plying their trade in the English Premiership:

(Players in bold have cards in the Match Attax set)

Jozy Altidore Hull City,

Clint Dempsey Fulham,

Brad Friedel Aston Villa,

Brad Guzan Aston Villa,

Marcus Hahnemann Wolves,

Tim Howard Everton,

Eddie Johnson Fulham,

Eric Lichaj Aston Villa,

Boaz Myhill Hull City,

Jonathan Spector West Ham and

Brede Hangeland Fulham.

(although born in Texas he has played for Norway about 50 times)

and 2 players from Canada:

David Edgar Burnley,

David Huilett Blackburn Rovers.

I busted 6 packs for your pleasure.

Pack 1:

Stephen Carr Birmingham City

David James Portsmouth

Mario Melchiot Wigan Athletic

Emmanuel Eboue Arsenal

James McFadden Birmingham City

Martin Paterson Burnley i-card

Pack 2:

Steven Caldwell Burnley

Joey Gudjonsson Burnley

Luke Young Aston Villa

Joel Ward Portsmouth

Phil Jagielka Everton

El-Hadji Diouf Blackburn Rovers i-card

Pack 3:

Kevin Davies Bolton Wanderers

Cameron Jerome Birmingham City

Daryl Murphy Sunderland

Jermaine Jenas Tottenham Hotspur

Paul Robinson Bolton Wanderers

Robert Green West Ham United i-card

Pack 4:

Jonathan Spector West Ham

Karl Henry Wolverhampton Wanderers

Ryan Giggs Manchester United

Emile Heskey Aston Villa

Jose Bosingwa Chelsea

Theo Walcott Arsenal MOM

Pack 5:

Ryan Babel Liverpool

Kevin Kilbane Hull City

Andy Wilkinson Stoke City

Christophe Berra Wolvehampton Wanderers

Danny Collins Stoke City

Andrey Arshavin Arsenal MOM

Pack 6:

Joleon Lescott Manchester City

Chris Iwelumo Wolverhampton Wanderers

Paul Hart Portsmouth manager

Mark Hughes Manchester City manager

Sir Alex Ferguson Manchester United manager

Carlos Tevez Manchester City i-card

If you have come this far, you are either a football fan or have an insatiable curiosity.
Drop me a message if you would like some of these packs and they will happily find their way to you. I will also throw in the Collectors Guide.