Manchester United Legend Dies

Bill Foulkes, former coach of the Chicago Sting, the Tulsa Roughnecks and the San Jose Earthquakes of the NASL, died at the age of 81 on Monday.

1959 A&BC Footballers - Bill Foulkes

As a player, Foulkes was best known for his glittering career with Matt Busby’s Manchester United, where he spent 18 years, making 688 appearances in all competitions.

Foulkes, a survivor of the horrific Munich plane crash in 1958, went on to captain United, leading the club to its first-ever European Cup success in 1968.

Manchester United’s players will wear a black armband to remember him for the club’s UEFA Champions League clash against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday.

R.I.P. Bill Foulkes.

1975 TOPPS - Manchester United

Adding to my 1975 Topps soccer set with the "red" side of Manchester. The mid 70's finds today's world's most expensive club absent of its legendary trio of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best. However, the side still has some very good international players:

MICK MARTIN - earned 51 caps for the Republic of Ireland. After 147 appearances for Newcastle United, he caught the end of the NASL wave by joining the VANCOUVER WHITECAPS.  Son of Irish soccer star Con Martin. 

WILLIE MORGAN - won 21 caps for Scotland including the 1974 World Cup. First came to America on loan to the Chicago Sting and then spent 3 seasons with the MINNESOTA KICKS. 

ALEX FORSYTH - winner of the 1977 F.A. Cup with United. Capped 10 times for Scotland. 

STUART PEARSON - another 1977 F.A. Cup winner. Also won the 1980 F.A. Cup with West Ham.  Earned 15 caps for England including the match against Team USA in 1976.

ALEX STEPNEY - the last holdover from the Manchester's great 1968 European Championship. He made an astonishing 546 appearances for United after which he joined the DALLAS TORNADO in America. 

Although I don't think I will ever complete this set, I have hopes of finishing my LIVERPOOL players list and a few more of the special cards like CENTURIONS and the TOPPS SELECT cards.

NEXT:  here is a clue - I'll be STUCK to the TV screen, watching EURO 2012 while eating my  PANINI ....

Getting Nostalgic With the 90's - Shiney Magic Merlin

[above - 1996 MERLIN'S International Masters of The Game - Alan Shearer]

After selling off my entire collection of NFL football cards last week, I have become more focused on filling the gaps in my soccer card collection. As much as I enjoyed the other sports cards growing up, I always wanted more soccer material to be produced in the USA. Unfortunately, it never happened. Now, with Upper Deck spitting out their sub-standard product - and  MLS being complacent with it, it looks like nothing much has changed. Thank Buddah for the internet, and cable TV.

Now, I do look at my rebirth into collecting when the wonderful products became available in the 1990's though internet trades - namely, MERLIN'S PREMIER LEAGUE  trading cards.

[above- 1998 MERLIN'S Rainbow foil Golden Moment - Alan Shearer]

There are several reasons why these card sets appeal to me. First of all, they were very managable sizes. Most were under 200 cards. Next, they had small and well designed chase cards inserted in the packs. Both the front and the reverse were guilded in shiney color and gloss. But more importantly, they had good information.

[above - 1999 MERLIN'S Gold - Michael Owen]

Lastly, they were acoompanied by binder books - complete with plastic pages and room for all the base cards and the inserts. The binders featured fantastic photos of the stars and a checklist to track your progress.

[above - 1998 MERLIN'S Permier League Hotshots - Robbie Fowler]

While the inserts were dominated by Manchester United players, it had a good mix of stars that have stood up with time - Alan Shearer, Robbie Fowler and Micheal Owen - all 100 goal scorers in the Premier League.

[above - 1996 MERLIN'S International Masters of The Game - Ryan Giggs]

There were a good number of foreign players that were beginning to star in the Premier league on a regular basis. They soon became fan favorites like - Eric Cantona (France), Ruud Gullit Holland), Giunluca Vialli (Italy), Peter Schmeichel (Denmark) and Faustino Asprilla (Colombia).

This was the start to the Premier League evolving into the "World's Best League". Although they are still relatively affordable ($5-10 range), these inserts are becoming increasingly harder to find as global collectors search for super looking super star cards.

The A&BC s of Footballers - the First Year

The first product of any card company is always special. The 1952 Topps baseball is idolized for its inclusion of the Mickey Mantle card. The 1958 A&BC Chewing Gum card set is actually the second sports product from the British card makers.

The 1954 A&BC All Sports was a multi-athletic set but did feature some great soccer players. However, the first complete soccer set by A&BC was this 1958-59 series. This feaured the rookie card of England's all time scorer and Manchester United great - BOBBY CHARLTON.

I recently traded for 5 cards from this colorful set with my friend Stein. A&BC - also known as the American & British Company Limited - produced sets from 1958 to 1975. They were then purchased by Topps. Topps continued the soccer sets up to 1981.

You can see that the two makers already worked together by the similarity of designs from the Topps baseball and the A&BC soccer cards.

I have already completed two of the A&BC sets - the 1967 and the 1971 series. I have about 75 % of the 1959 set and got a nice start on this 1958 set. The variations are still a curiousity as the debut series were issued wih the Planet album offer and without

the Planet offer. Yet, even the with versions have been found to be on different sizes.

Of course the "with Planet tabs" are more desirable, the ones without were designed to be put in the album. As you can see by the dotted line they expected the collectors to trim off the tab to fit in the album.

I am looking for any trades on these cards. Speak up and get yourself a deal ...

2010 Topps Match Attax - kicks off new sets

Although the packs have been available for a few months now, I finally got around to opening the pack of 2009-10 Topps Match Attax soccer cards. The trade with my fellow blogger Jack at Pursuit of 80's is always great.

The first pack I opened revealed the online craze of playing football with trading cards. I immediately pulled an icard - with a code that gets you extra points plus more online cards for your team.

Here was the breakdown of 4 packs:

Pack 1:

Christian Benitez - Birmingham City

Hugo Rodallega - Wigan Athletic (icard)

Marc Wilson - Portsmouth

Julien Faubert - West Ham United

Hermann Hreidarsson - Portsmouth

David Edgar - Burnley

Nice start with the shiney insert card, but the others are all from the bottom clubs.

 Pack 2:

James McFadden - Birmingham City

Emannuel Eboude - Arsenal

Ayegbeni Yakubu - Everton

Jonathan Woodgate - Tottenham

Benni McCarthy - Blackburn Rovers

Liam Lawrence - Stoke City

Much better with a few international players in the mix.

Pack 3:

Gary Megson - Bolton Wonderers - Manager

Tomas Rosicky - Arsenal

Steve Finnan - Portsmouth

Emile Heskey - Aston Villa

Steve Sidwell - Aston Villa

Roy Hodgeson - Fulham United - Manager

More Portsmouth (last place team) and two manager cards. Oh well - a bit better.

Pack 4:

John Utaka - Portsmouth (blimey !)

Sir Alex Ferguson - Manchester United - Manager (a real Knight !)

Mark Hughes - Manchester City - Manager (former Man. Utd star)

Ryan Nelson - Blackburn Rovers (former DC United player)

Carlos Tevez - Manchester City (icard)

Karl Henry - Woverhampton

A very nice finish. Although now Hughes has been unceramoniously fired, Tevez to me is the player to watch in the upcoming World Cup. While many will be folloiwing Lionel Messi, Argentina's ace might just be Carlos Tevez.

Speaking of international sporting events - JD's Wild Cardz is having an Olympics contest with cool giveaways. So get there quick, check out his blog and take a flag (or a number) !

The Vancouver Winter Olympics begins this Friday.

I'm Glad it's not Just Me ...

Beckham-mania may have cooled in America, but it may be attributed to the season being over ... and that the player has been loaned to Italian League Giants - AC Milan for a few months. So the craze has shifted back to Europe.

Proof, you say ? Well, how about this: " Panini Beckham Sticker Causes Panic"
Panini, the long time producer of sports and collectable stickers has produced a special sticker not included in the set. The Italian based company offices has been inundated with over 1,000 calls a day asking for a copy of the sticker.

In a related story of money, Beckham's teammate - the Brazilian KAKA' - is wanted by English club Manchester City. They are offering $160 MILLION dollars ! Yup - and they are willing to add another $100 million dollars to entice the player to sign a contract. Can you say Cha-Ching ! ... or is that Barra-Bing-o !

Lastly, in this vein of filthy wealth - comes the headlines that Manchester United's superstar CRISTIANO RONALDO has wrecked his $300,000 (200,000 British Pounds) Ferrari on the way to training.

No problem, he just called relatives to pick him up in another one of his luxury vehicles. Is it any wonder why so many American soccer players want to earn their living in Europe ?

On a side note, this Upper Deck SP of Ronaldo autograph card went for $700.00 at auction. Who needs a stadium seat when you can get a "sports car crasher" autograph ?