Recently-Acquired Panini Sticker Album of the Day #8: French 'Football 78'

Following on from its predecessor, Panini’s French edition ‘Football 78’ also seemed an essential acquisition when research revealed the opportunity existed to add such a publication to the collection, & so it came to pass.

This time, the stickers return to the head-and-shoulders portrait format for the images of the Ligue 1 clubs’ trainers and players, where one is better able to appreciate the varieties of personal grooming on display – of the former, it’s impossible not to admire the look of Strasbourg’s Gilbert Gress, whilst Paris SG’s newly-appointed Jean-Michel Larque (last year still a member of the Saint-Etienne playing staff – that’s one of the good things about owning consecutive albums, such an opportunity to see the subtle changes) & his ‘medallion man’ style might be considered a bit risqué, were he not French.

The album’s centrespread is, on this occasion, comprised of stickers of the badges of the national associations of the countries against whom France had played football matches up to the time, & to conclude matters, any coverage of the Second Division is overlooked in order to make way for a gallery of monochrome portraits of the ‘stars of the past’ of French soccer.

As ever, words cannot do such a delightful archive justice, so please take the time to enjoy this selection of sample pages…

Alles Les Verts, etc.

Palpable excitement building through this afternoon & into the evening at TOoT Towers as the group stages of the Europa League kick-off, with section F featuring three of the more romantic & our very favourite continental names in the form of Saint-Etienne, Internazionale & the former Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk (preferring to remain true to the Soviet Russian styling, of course), who, in any sane world, would constitute three of any season’s Champions’ League semi-finalists (with Atlético Madrid completing the line-up), let alone this particular tournament’s, impossible now though the latter is  – what a shame that, through the vagaries of the draw, one of these fine clubs must be eliminated from European competition even before the end of the year: may the best teams win & the deserving pair subsequently prevail.

(mention should also be made, perhaps, of the other rather interesting name completing Group F, Qarabag of Azerbaijan)

Badge of the Day #13 (Saint-Etienne)

This latest object from the European club badge collection represents Saint-Etienne, whose green-shirted wonderfulness (& we do like our greens) seduced upon first encounter in the mid-70s (heartbreakingly defeated by the dreadful Bayern Munich – the soul of whom even Pep Guardiola will be unable to locate, let alone save - in the 1976 European Cup Final) & has endured to the extent that ‘Les Verts’ have remained by far the most-favoured French club since.

However the club’s European profile might have waned since those heady days, & domestic success largely proved elusive over recent years, still there’s a frisson when the team win, as they have today, with a 1- 0 victory in Ligue 1 at Nice: nice.