SAO PAULO, Brazil — Some spend crazy amounts, others line up at dawn or gather at
informal swap meets — anything to satisfy a passion that combines love of
soccer, this year’s
World Cup in Qatar, and the ever-popular pursuit of Panini
soccer stickers.
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Sold in 150
countries, the stickers seem to arouse a particular frenzy in Latin America
because of the possibility that this might be the last World Cup for
Argentinian football icon Lionel Messi, who is 35, or that a Latin American
side might finally break
Europe’s hold on the Cup.
“Almost
everything I earn, that anyone lends me, or that they owe me, I invest in the
stickers,” Hilda Losada, who is Argentinian, told AFP.
The 68-year-old
grandmother, who is working to complete her album of nearly 700 stickers — and
her grandson’s as well — has been waiting in line since 5am for the opening of
a store in Buenos Aires.
The stickers
have been in short supply for days in Argentina, with the government itself
intervening to mediate between the Italian publisher and frustrated shopkeepers
who want a bigger piece of the juicy trade.
“This is one of
the few places where you can find them now,” Losada said, standing in a long
line of collectors.
Not everyone
will leave happy, and some are vowing to turn to the black market, if need be,
even if it costs twice the official price of about $1 for five stickers.
Her family tells
her she’s crazy, but Losada pays them no mind as she happily pursues her
fascination. She has been collecting the cards every four years since she was
“a little girl,” she insists, even if galloping inflation in Argentina —
currently at 56 percent — does not make that easy.
“Argentina is
nearly always in an economic crisis,” shrugged the shop owner, Leila Edul. “But
now, with these stickers ... money somehow appears out of nowhere.”
That is true
despite the soaring price of a packet since the 2018 World Cup in
Russia. In
Brazil, the cost has doubled, from $0.37 to $0.74 cents.
‘We like to trade’
“My father bought me three packets,” said an exuberant Tiziano Orselli,
14, as the two inspected the offerings at a swap meet at Buenos Aires’s
Rivadavia Park.
“When I saw
‘Argentina 19’ and realized it was Messi, I was too happy,” he said. I showed
it to everybody and then I stuck it, there, in the album,” he said, his eyes
still wide at the thought.
Mauricio Valencia
had set up a table on sawhorses and piled it high with stacks of stickers to
trade or sell. He said he had done this previously in Colombia, because “in
Latin America we like to trade (Panini) stickers.”
“But it’s not
the same here,” he added. “There is such fervor — it’s packed every weekend.”
Raul Vallecillo,
a Panini official in Chile, said Latin American sales have exceeded the
expectations of the Italian manufacturer, which published its first album for
the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
Chile’s national
team did not qualify for this year’s World Cup, which opens in Qatar in
November, yet Panini sold in a single month the stock it had expected to last
four months, he said. The same trend holds in Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru,
all of which also failed to qualify, he said.
Vallecillo said
the infatuation with the cards is heightened by the likelihood that this will
be the last appearance of aging superstars like Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as
well as the hope the Argentine or Brazilian side will be able to break the
European teams’ 20-year stranglehold on the championship.
Street vendors
In Sao Paulo, collectors have been gathering outside the Football
Museum.
Forty-year-old
Leandro Fonseca is on the hunt for some special-edition stickers, including
some with
Neymar’s image, which have been selling on the internet for hundreds
of dollars.
“I’m off to a
late start on the ‘extras,’ but I hope to fill 20 albums, he said. “I fill
several during every World Cup.”
He said he had
spent around $1,800 so far to complete seven albums.
Across Latin
America, the resale business is brisk.
On a busy road
in Montevideo, children come, carrying lists of sticker numbers, to try to buy
those they’re missing.
The stickers of
stars like Messi, Neymar, and local favorite Luis Suarez sell for around 100
pesos ($2.40). Other lesser stars from the Uruguayan, Argentine, or Brazilian
sides go for 20 to 50 pesos, while still others go for just 10 pesos (though a
star like France’s Kylian Mbappe brings in 50 pesos).
Guillermo Orcile
has been helping his seven-year-old son Salvador complete his album entirely
through trades.
“It’s important
that he understand how trading works, which makes these albums important,” he
said.
“Because if it’s
just about buying, then the spirit is lost.”
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