The road to creating a first-of-its-kind trading card product like Panini America's 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Prizm, much like the road to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ itself, can be a long, arduous journey. The results once you get there, however, are every bit as spectacular.
The road to creating a first-of-its-kind trading card product like Panini America’s 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Prizm, much like the road to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ itself, can be a long, arduous journey. The results once you get there, however, are every bit as spectacular.
When Panini America officials set out last summer to build a trading card set that combined the collecting world’s most popular technology (Prizm) with the world’s most popular sporting event, they aspired to craft the single greatest autograph checklist in the history of soccer trading cards. When the 50th and final soccer superstar — Roberto Carlos — returned his autographs last week, that once-improbable mission became a blissful reality, resulting in a 100-percent, redemption-free product.
A project that began in earnest last July was finally completed almost nine months later. And as you’ll see in the revealing gallery that follows, a lot can happen in nine months.
“Setting the goal of zero redemptions early on was definitely nerve-racking,” said Alex Carbajal, Panini America’s Licensing Acquisitions Manager for the Prizm World Cup set. “A lot of time was spent communicating and planning the logistics with return shipments and answering questions regarding the signings. The international time zones didn’t always gel with ours, so answering the phone in the wee hours of the morning from a foreign number became a common practice.”
So did anxiously scouring incoming parcels for the gradually arriving autographs of World Cup legends. The first four signers to return autographs — Frank Lampard, Frank Rijkaard, Marco Van Basten and Roberto Baggio — did so on the same day in early December. The aforementioned Carlos returned his last Thursday from all the way in Turkey and just in time to make packout.
In between, Panini America HQ was a destination of special deliveries from some of the greatest soccer superstars of all time including Pelé, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Franz Beckenbauer, Jürgen Klinsmann, Neymar, Clint Dempsey, Bobby Charlton and many more.
“I was surprised to hear how many players collected the FIFA World Cup™ stickers in the past,” Carbajal said. “There were many fond memories from the players. So the ‘Panini’ name really brought back fun memories of them collecting or seeing their first sticker as a player.”
Below, we’ve provided a gallery of signature moments — literally — from the globetrotting signing sessions required to create the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Prizm set. For soccer fans and collectors who’ve been asking since day one who signed for the set, your answers await.
Stay tuned to The Knight’s Lance tomorrow a world-premiere unveiling of the autographed cards themselves. You can pre-order 2014 FIFA Wold Cup Brazil™ Prizm now at iCollectPanini.com. The product goes live in the U.S. on May 7.
Next week can’t come fast enough…It will be an exciting hunt for those signatures!
EPIC!
How many Autos per case?
wow,wow,wow that is the only word which I can say right now !
where is possible to buy…in Europe
i’m italian…..but here is impossible to exit them…
Is this product being released in the UK?
Yes, it is. It’s being released by virtually all Panini subsidiaries around the world.
Tears were shed in the viewing of this gallery.
stickers…. I am left very depressed
Excellent line up. Am sure you had more original names and other people in there, but to get 50 top names is superb. Is there any view yet on approx autos per box/case? I heard one every couple of boxes was the aspirational insert rate?
Autographs will fall one every other box on average, with about six autographs per case.
I just saw all those shaded Panini logos on all the pics and thought to myself “this is an easy contest” hahahahaha
very cool indeed!
Funny.
Impressive bunch of legendary players.
Unfreak’n believable. Can’t wait for this to come out. Panini you guys are awesome.
Awesome stuff. But why is Romaldo giving you the “middle finger” in his pic?
Is this product in a retail version?
This gives Futera a head shot! If you can go to Sydney and get del piero signed, that would be perfect for me!
Wait, when you say one chance every other box of having an autographed card, do you mean to say that on a $120 box i have a 50% chance of getting one card???!!!
Autograph cards are randomly inserted across the production run and will fall roughly one in every other box.
Mr.Hackler I just wanted to say,W E L L D O N E sir,amaaazing lineup 🙂
I canot wait for the release of this product,this is the the 1st time im gonna buy Football cards,but i started collecting Panini WC stickers since Italia 90′ and i still have all my albums from each year after 🙂
I just wish u guys got autos from some of the lower rank teams,like my country IRAN,my fiances JAPAN and so on…..keep up the gr8t work at Panini,u guys rock…
Ohh,forgot to mention,Maradona would have been nice if he was part of the great legends that signed for Panini 🙁
Always a fan of the behind the scenes. Great stuff!
I am very excited to collect this set and as many autographs I can get my hands on !! I have been waiting along time for something so special to hit the market , and very happy that it was put out by panini my favorite sports card company. as a former canadian u 17 national team and former anorthosis famagusta of the cypriot premier league player ,I have been all over the world and collected many of paninis products such as stickers and cards but never have I seen a set that offers so many of the best players cards and autographs in one set .I cant wait to start my collection and see many of these players in action in Brazil in 2014 .thanks again panini for another great product . nick m
Appreciate the kind words, Nick.
I already got the Rafael Marquez. 🙂
Just bought a box Jumped up and down at store pulled a neymar base auto wow still happy will be forever
Awesome! Great pull.
So there is a Mexican version of the hardcover album, since I understood it to be only in Austria.
Hmm I am waiting for FIFA world cup 2014.
woooow that’s wonderfull i want it ! I love Neymar ! Go Go Go Brazil !
Is there a way to know how many autographs each player signed?
so why did panini let cafu sign with the wrong pen..??