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The 60th birthday of Calciatori Panini

Celebrated in newstands with a special cover

The 60th birthday of Calciatori Panini Celebrated in newstands with a special cover

With a special edition on newsstands since yesterday, Calciatori Panini stickers celebrate their 60th anniversary. The Modena-based company, founded in 1960 by brothers Benito and Giuseppe Panini, began printing stickers in 1961. The album, on newsstands these days, celebrates the anniversary with a special cover: in addition to the historical overthrow of Carlo Parola of Juventus, behind the sports brand there is in gold the number sixty, embossed on a brick-style background, painted with the colors of the flag of Italy. 

The pages will have 748 stickers in which the 'Top Team Panini 60' and 'La Panini più amata' collections also appear - not trivially, given the year - that is, extraordinary collections of stickers that will be printed during the year according to the choices of collectors. The most interesting news for fans, however, is 'Panini 60', the section dedicated to album covers, in which to find all sixty covers that Panini has created for its annual collections. For several years, the Panini album has not only been aimed at photographs of teams and players, but also at the context of the championship, such as the most important competitions and the focus on the protagonists, embracing more and more a total vision of football in Italy. Which, in fact, is no longer limited only to the faces of players, and compared to past years, it is much denser with content, captions and photos. There is much more extra content such as those on the football market or the 'Championship Film' (in partnership with La Gazzetta dello Sport and Sportweek) and also digitally, the company has shown itself to be much more interactive with collectors.

Although historical and traditional, the stickers are not only an Italian phenomenon: even abroad, in fact, there are companies that print collectible stickers, especially in England and Spain. But a culture of the collection such as the Italian one does not exist. Although the last few years have not been economically the best for Panini - which in addition to printing the album of the Italian football championships, also produces those of the Champions League, the World Cup and the Europeo- the phenomenon of collecting the stickers of footballers continues, with a recognition of cultural status that has created, over the years, also exhibitions and conferences.