world cup stickers from another part of the world

here's a non-baseball post that makes sense with the 2026 world cup underway. my wife and i recently traveled to the uk and i took notice of panini stickers and topps "soccer" product in a lot of places. in particular, the panini world cup stickers were very prominent - i saw that product in a variety of formats and in a number of convenience stores, drug stores and airport stores.

i gave in and bought a pack of stickers from a "department store" in lerwick, scotland for not too much - maybe even less than a quid. here's the front of the 7 sticker pack

and here's the back:

i considered buying some larger packs but then remembered that i didn't really care about this product. as for the pack i did purchase, i opened it when i returned home. here are the contents:

the stickers list the players' current team, with the country that they will (presumably - i am not familiar with the rosters) represent in the world cup tournament.

i don't recognize any of these names, but i will list them here with their club teams and then their national teams.

mario pasalic - atalanta bc (ita); croatia

ivan basic - fc astana (kaz); bosnia and herzegovina

noussair mazraoui - manchester united fc; morocco

mathias olivera - ssc napoli (sta); uruguay

mohamed toure - randers fc (den); australia

gervane kastaneer - persis solo fc (idn); curacao

nico schlotterbeck - borussia dortmund (ger); germany

here are the backs:

these are smaller than standard cards - they are 2 inches by 2.5 inches - and are reminiscent of the topps stickers of the 80's as well as some of the non-standard sized recent topps baseball sticker releases.

to be clear, i am not collecting these stickers - this was just a purchase for a post sort of thing. however, i've sent them on to someone who is working on the sticker book so they aren't going to waste.

for those of you who celebrate - enjoy the tournament!