40 years ago: the 1986 World Cup in Mexico
The 1986 World Cup left a deep impression on me. But what I remember most isn’t the actual championship, but the Panini sticker album.
When it comes to more recent World Cups, I tend to forget almost everything the moment the tournament’s over. Back in 1986, however, it was a different story. I still have vivid memories of the championship to this day. It was almost exactly 40 years ago when it kicked off.
I was ten years old. Naturally, many things you experience in your childhood leave a deep impression. These days, a World Cup tournament is «same, same, but different» to me. Besides, there are far more games and tournaments in general, which inevitably reduces the significance of individual matches.
But another important reason for the lasting memories I have of ’86 is the Panini World Cup sticker album.
How memories are made
I only watched a handful of games live on TV, and it’s not like football games last that long either. Meaning, if you spend just 90 minutes doing anything, the memories will fade quite quickly. What I did spend loads of time on, however, was looking at my Panini stickers. This was by no means a passive affair. I’d place the stickers in my album, trade them with friends, record the scores and blow all my money on them. Even after the World Cup was over, the album – and especially the stickers – stayed with me both literally and figuratively. In a way, they’re still with me today.
The Ikea wardrobe that used to be in my bedroom growing up. I mainly used it as a surface to get rid of all kinds of surplus stickers, including Paninis. The wardrobe is stowed away in my parents’ cellar where it lives an existence as creepy as a skeleton in the closet.
Source: David Lee
First the photos, then the events
Photos often serve as mementos. In the case of my Panini stickers, however, they already existed before the actual event took place and only filled up with memories as the tournament progressed.
One of the big ones was, of course, Maradona doing his magic. The game against England alone was mind-blowing. In the quarter-finals, Maradona scored two of the most memorable goals of all time in the span of just four minutes. The shots revealed two sides of Maradona: the football genius delivering the Goal of the Century. And the troublemaker scoring with the help of his hand. According to him, he managed to score, «a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.» Did someone just refer to themselves as God? That wonderfully ambiguous remark annoyed England almost as much as his unorthodox goal.
I could never really be mad at him for that. After all, Maradona showed the world just how beautiful football can be. He was a player whose warm-up routine alone was more spectacular than the highlights of many a professional’s entire career.
The Brazilians also played beautifully, but, unfortunately, didn’t manage to win the championship. The quarter-final game Brazil vs. France could just as easily have been the final. For the second time since 1982, the Brazilian team was eliminated early. It was the end of an era. Modern football no longer provided a place for players like Socrates, who viewed themselves more as artists than as athletes. But a place of honour was reserved for them in the Panini album for all time.
Through the album, I also learned a bit about the host country, Mexico. There was a map and pictures of stadiums and their capacity. The Aztec Stadium was able to hold 120,000 people. I associated this image with the sweltering midday heat in which the footballers had to play so that Europe could watch the games during prime time. And «La Ola» – the human wave previously unknown in Europe.
How to get minors hooked
The Panini sticker album was free, and it contained what my ten-year-old self loved: facts, figures and statistics. The results of the qualifiers were listed for each team. You were able to enter the group stage matches directly on the team pages. The teams from the knockout stage were on an overview page.
Then there were parts dedicated to all stadiums and previous World Cup tournaments, including the host countries, winners and logos. I learned a lot from this album. Remember, there was no internet, and I had zero previous knowledge.
Source: Screenshot from eBay
Buying the stickers was fun at first, too. I’d buy packs individually at the kiosk and stick the six random stickers they contained in my album as soon as I got home. It felt so satisfying watching the album gradually fill up. But then I started to get stickers I already had. The more I bought, the more this happened. Despite trading countless stickers with friends, I ended up with 180 duplicates. I even had five copies of one of the players. I’m not even sure who it was. I have a faint recollection of an unknown player from Northern Ireland. What I do remember, however, is personally hating him for being in my collection five times. I ended up ordering the missing stickers, but was restricted by a specific number I was allowed to purchase. Those stickers also cost way more than the ones I’d gone out and bought.
Despite the obstacles, I managed to complete the album and ended up keeping it for many years. Unfortunately, I threw it away at some point in my life. A shame, really. Especially looking at the obscene prices being charged today for these albums and for some individual stickers.
Portraits from hell
Even as a kid, I was baffled by how silly some players looked. To this day, I struggle to understand why the photos were of such poor quality. Danish player Søren Lerby had his tongue hanging out, for example. Many players were snapped from a slightly low angle. Judging by the blurry backgrounds, most of them seem to be standing on a football pitch in front of packed stands. Does that mean someone was taking their photo while the national anthem was playing? Or after they’d missed a great opportunity, or were given a yellow card? At least that’s what many of their facial expressions seem to suggest.
Seeing that heaps of money were made off these photos, couldn’t they at least have organised a proper photo shoot?
Source: Screenshot from eBay
Half and full teams
In 1986, there were just 24 competing teams. In fact, the European Championships only consisted of eight teams until 1992. That also meant fewer Panini stickers. So the expansion to 32 teams, and now even 48, is good news for the football merch peddlers. For the upcoming 2026 mega tournament, there are 980 stickers to collect. That’s 553 more than in 1986.
Surprisingly, Panini missed a sales opportunity back in 1986 by artificially reducing the number of stickers to fit five teams on just one page each instead of two. The affected teams were Algeria, Iraq, Canada, Morocco, and South Korea, where two players were crammed onto one sticker. A strange decision, especially given the questionable message it came with. Namely that the few teams that were neither European nor South American weren’t important. However, Morocco came first in a tough group that included England, Portugal and Poland. Aziz Bouderbala went on to play for Switzerland’s FC Sion and then FC St Gallen.
Source: Screenshot from eBay
A fortune for an experience and a lesson
Ultimately, I experienced the World Cup mainly through my Panini sticker album. To this day, I still remember every single picture of every player. That’s pretty crazy to me now. Especially considering how little I know about today’s players.
If you look at it that way, maybe the stickers weren’t that overpriced after all. They came with an experience.
But I don’t want to sugarcoat things either. Even back then, the whole system was a despicable scam targeting unsuspecting minors. I’ve never really been one for shopping sprees, but the Panini system got me. I squandered all my savings on those stickers. For the first and only time in my life, I was completely broke, down to the last penny.
That was an important experience, too. It sharpened my awareness. Ever since then, I’ve always made sure to look at the system behind anything I spend money on.
My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.
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