The ‘In The Panini World Cup Sticker Album But Not The Actual World Cup’ XI | OneFootball

There are many great things about the World Cup. And some of them not even FIFA or dodgy host nations can spoil. One of those great things is, of course, the Panini sticker album.

Who can resist the lure of Got, Got, Need? Absolutely not us. But there is always one problem with the Panini World Cup sticker album; it obviously goes to print way before the final squads are confirmed.

That always leaves a group of players in an exclusive bittersweet club: those who get a coveted sticker in the album, but not the arguably even more coveted place in their country’s actual World Cup squad.

There is a second problem with this year’s album, specifically, and here we do get to FIFA’s attempts at ruining things: it’s absolutely bloody massive.

We have noted with interest that Panini have dispensed with their usual numbering system for stickers this year. Instead of just going up from one to however many, each individual country has its own set of stickers numbered 1-20.

Presumably in the hope that enough harried and harassed parents in supermarkets won’t correctly do the mental maths of 48×20 until it’s all too late and they’re totally committed.

With one of the 20 a shiny crest and another a team photo, that leaves 18 individual player stickers per nation.

Should be easy enough to correctly predict 18 out of 26 shouldn’t it? You’d be surprised how difficult it actually is as we present the In The Panini World Cup Sticker Album But Not The Actual World Cup XI.

GK: Bento (Brazil)

The problem with the In The Panini World Cup Sticker Album But Not The Actual World Cup XI – beyond that frankly dreadful name – is that it can very easily fall at the first hurdle.

With only one or two keepers included in the 18-player stickers for each country, it takes quite the f*ck up to include one who doesn’t actually make it.

And talking of f*ck ups brings us to Bento, the Brazilian goalkeeper turned meme who is now and surely always best known for the 98th-minute Saudi Pro League howler that made Ronaldo cry.

In a fine example of how the internet works in big 2026, this was routinely referred to as the gaffe that cost Al-Nassr the title, even though it merely delayed their triumph.

It doesn’t matter; memes have their own potent and instant truth that cannot be shot down by your quaint, old-fashioned ‘league tables’.

The second thing Bento will be known for is getting the nod as Brazil’s second keeper from Panini ahead of Ederson and Weverton, but not from Carlo Ancelotti.

RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold (England)

With most of these, we’re willing to cut Panini a fair amount of slack.

Lead times are what they are, and it’s not always easy to get inside the mind of 48 national-team coaches to try and work out what their thought processes might be, even before the obvious pitfalls of injury and catastrophic loss of form come up.

But given the final World Cup line-up wasn’t known until March, for Alexander-Arnold to be signed off as one of the 18 safest bets for Thomas Tuchel’s England squad does seem a curious choice. His last game for England was a 26-minute substitute appearance against Andorra last June.

Credit where it’s due, though: Panini did correctly untangle the England centre-back issue, including Stones, Guehi, Konsa and Burn, but not Maguire.

CB: Dean Huijsen (Spain)

A textbook case of one of the two pitfalls that Panini can only hope to avoid. Injuries are one thing – it’s absolutely inevitable that a few injured lads are going to be ruled out of the tournament long after their sticker has been sent to the printers. Nothing really to be done about that.

But Huijsen is an example of the more unusual problem of a player’s form simply nosediving off a cliff in the second half of the season.

Looked the safest of bets after his big-money move from Bournemouth to Real Madrid and a decent start for Los Blancos, but the drop-off was pretty wild and ultimately saw Barca’s Eric Garcia preferred in a Spain squad featuring no Real Madrid players at all.

CB: Robin Le Normand (Spain)

Genuinely quite impressive to have two centre-backs from the same team in the album but not the final squad.

But Panini/Spain have managed to pull it off after Le Normand, whose last of his current 27 caps came in October, didn’t make the final 26 for Luis de la Fuente after making the final 18 for the stickers.

LB: Jeremie Frimpong (Netherlands)

We’re going full Gareth Southgate here and asking 15-cap right-back Frimpong to do a job for us at left-back like a Dutch Kieran Trippier.

He was getting minutes for Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands as recently as March, but a difficult first season at Liverpool after lighting up the Bundesliga ultimately sees him miss out.

Gets himself a sticker, though. And isn’t that what’s important, at the end of the day? Not really, no, but we’re just trying to make him feel a bit better as he watches his club team-mates Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo gallivant off to North America.

Obviously, those three also got stickers.

CM: Eduardo Camavinga (France)

A double-whammy this one, with Camavinga’s shock omission from Didier Deschamps’ France squad after an admittedly injury-plagued season scuppering not one but two stickers in Panini’s giant album.

As well as his entirely understandable place in the France section of the book, his face also adorns one of the 12 special stickers available with promotional packs of Coca-Cola.

It’s one thing suffering the occasional snafu when trying to pick 18 players per country, but Coke managing to get one of the 12 players they’d picked from across the entire tournament to be overlooked is weirdly impressive, in its own way.

CM: Tanner Tessmann (USA)

The Lyon midfielder was a shoo-in for the squad before a minor injury last month ended his season.

Even then, it was still expected he would make Mauricio Pochettino’s 26, but with plenty of injury headaches to juggle the Argentine decided he couldn’t take a chance on the 24-year-old.

RW: Cole Palmer (England)

One of the two big omissions among England’s attacking options. It wasn’t exactly a bolt from the blue when Palmer missed the cut after a stop-start season with Chelsea, but we can understand why Panini put him in the book.

CAM: Xavi Simons (Netherlands)

This one is, on the face of it, just pure bad luck with Xavi’s season-ending, World Cup-scuppering injury for Spurs coming way after the print deadline for the album.

But our view is this: including any Spurs player at all in the album just represented a monumental and unnecessary risk for the sticker overlords.

Given the injury-ravaged Jonah nature of that club and squad of players, just don’t take that chance. They are all always getting injured. Just put someone else in, save yourselves the aggro.

LW: Phil Foden (England)

One of the two big omissions among England’s attacking options. It wasn’t exactly a bolt from the blue when Foden missed the cut after a stop-start season with Manchester City, but we can understand why Panini put him in the book.

CF: Joao Pedro (Brazil)

Desperately unlucky to miss out on Brazil’s squad after a fine season in a chaotic Chelsea side, and we’re not sure the existence of a Panini sticker will be enough to ease the pain.

The other big talking point from the Brazil squad, of course, was the return of Neymar. He did not get a sticker from Panini this time around.