My Soccer Cards

an inside look into the wonderful world of collecting rare soccer cards

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1958 Swedish Superman - Stars of Sports - Pele

Between 1957 and 1959, the Swedish version of Superman comic book (“Stålmannen”) featured a series of collectible oversized sport cards on the back cover. The cards were supposed to be cut and collected as a set. The series was named “Stars of Sports” (“Idrottstjärnor”) and included famous Swedish and international athletes from various sports.

The series of 1958 included one of the very first appearances on sport cards of the then 17-years old Brazilian super star, Pele. 

This collectible may not have the status or fame of the other 1958 Swedish Pele rookie cards like the Alifabolaget or the Rekord card, but it is an important piece of card history. The text translates to: “The 17-years old from coffee town Santos. The youngest player, came second in the score board and he was definitely the most popular player of the tournament”.

The inside page of the comic book, gives us a proof of the date of issue: 22 October 1958.

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1970 Yemen Football World Championship (First Day Issue)

This first day issue mini-sheet was issued in Yemen Arab Republic on April 29th 1970, some weeks before the World Cup held in Mexico. It featured an illustration depicting the biggest name of the tournament, the Brazilian super-star Pele. The back side was blank.

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1973 Glórias E Troféus De Pelé

In 1973 in Brazil, a company called “Errege” issued a large collection consisting of 276 different cards dedicated to the Brazilian soccer star Pelé. The album was called “Glórias E Troféus De Pelé”, which translates to “Glories and Trophies of Pelé”. It presented cards depicting exclusively Pelé, from his childhood up to 1973 when he was 36 years old.

Two sample cards:

The back side of each card depicted -who else?- Pele in an action shot and it was numbered:

The last page of the album is pretty interesting, since it gave a check-list of the cards of the set, but also a proof of the year this collection was issued (or even better a date: 14-12-1973!). 

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1962 Nora Idolos De Ouro Verde-Amarela

This really nice and extremely rare collection was produced in Brazil during 1962, after Brazil won the World Cup in Chile and in order to honour the two-times winning Champion team. It consisted of 32 cards made of thin paper resembling bank notes (a usual theme of soccer cards in Brazil during the 60s). It featured all players that participated in the 1958 and 1962 World Cup as well as the two head coaches of the winning teams. Their dimensions were 11 cm x 5.4 cm.

What is interesting about this set is the fact that the players who participated in both 1958 and 1962 World Cup tournaments were featured in two different types of cards, that were identically numbered but presented two different photos (one of the player from 1958 and another of the same player from 1962). The two different variations are reflected on the name of the set “Colecao Verde-Amarela” which means “Collection Green-Yellow”. From the same year, there was also a very similar but different collection by the same publisher, featuring only the players of the 1962 team with photos from that year. This second collection was named “Colecao Amarela”, i.e. “Collection Yellow”.

Here are for example the two types of cards featuring the key player of the great Brazilian team, Pele:

Card #21: Pele (Type 1)

Card #21: Pele (Type 2)

The back side of the cards presented information about the set and looked like this:

Checklist:

Vicente Feola

Hilderaldo Bellini (Type 1 and 2)

Gilmar (Type 1 and 2)

Djalma Santos (Type 1 and 2)

Dino Sani

Didi (Type 1 and 2)

Mario Zagallo (Type 1 and 2)

Oreco

Zozimo

Dida

Garrincha (Type 1 and 2)

Nilton Santos (Type 1 and 2)

Moacir

De Sordi

Orlando

Mauro Ramos (Type 1 and 2)

Joel Antonio Martins

Mazzola

Zito (Type 1 and 2)

Vava (Type 1 and 2)

Pele (Type 1 and 2)

Pepe (Type 1 and 2)

Zozimo

Jair Marinho

Jurandir

Altair

Zequinha

Mengalvio

Jair da Costa

Amarildo

Castilho

Aymore Moreira

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1961-62 WS-Verlag Wanne-Eickel

This German issue from 1961-62 included unnumbered cards depicting both German and international football players and teams. Some of the cards were in colour while others were black and white. 

The first card depicting Pele in this series was probably the only ever to portray Pele as a goalkeeper (during a training session).

The second one, in black and white (and with the text “Internationaler Sport” on the back side) depicted him in a more classic posture:

The set included even a card depicting Pele playing chess with his co-player Didi, as well as a Brazil Team card:

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Pele Rookie Cards: the Truth behind the Myth.

There are more than one Pele cards issued in 1958 having the status of the best of all times “rookie card”. In this list I will present those that are widely accepted among soccer and Pele collectors as his true rookie cards. Firstly, I will present his personal rookies which will be followed by his team rookies (with the 1958 Brazil Team).

Personal Rookies

1958 Alifabolaget #635 Pele (Sweden) This rookie card of Pele was issued in Sweden during 1958, where the World Cup was held. It presents a 17 years old Pele, at the time widely unknown. The youngest player of the tournament. in my opinion this is one of the most important football cards ever, and for many collectors this is THE holy grail of collecting. It is made of cardboard material and is much smaller than a standard-sized card.

1958-59 Tupinamba LTDA Quigol #109 Pele (Brazil) One of the earliest and rarest rookie cards of Pele is the one from the Coleção Quigol series issued in Brazil by Tupinamba Ltda. This issue was published (like many other Brazilian issues of that time) on thin paper. These are almost always found glued in albums (otherwise it would be virtually impossible to survive due to their fragile nature).

1958 AVE LTDA Titulares #50 Pele (Brazil) One of the Top-3 rarest cards in the group, this one comes from a series called Titulares that was issued in 1958 in Brazil (I have heard rumours claiming that it was actually printed in 1957 but I have not yet seen any evidence). The series included one more Pele card numbered #86 (see below).

1958 AVE LTDA Titulares #86 Pele (Brazil) An extremely rare and fragile item. This was short-printed already back then in 1958 and it was considered as one of the tough cards of the collection. It has been counterfeited heavily: photocopied and glued in albums, making it a BIG gamble to purchase albums of the collection when they surface in Brazil and try to remove it. Easily one of my top-3 personal favourites.

1958 Editora Aquarela LTDA #10 Pele (with Black number) (Brazil) Another one of the 1958 Pele rookie cards, this one comes also from Brazil exactly like the 1958-59 Quigol. This set consisted of 24 cards that came in a perforated sheet and were then glued by the kids in a pretty little album (eight pages, three cards per page). There was a first printing of sheets with black coloured numbers on the back side, while on the later second printing the numbers were blue. The black numbered version is said to be rarer.

1958 Editora Aquarela LTDA #10 Pele (with Blue number) (Brazil) The Blue number back variation of the same series as the one above.

1958 Rekord journal Garrincha / Pele (Sweden) This is a hand-cut from the front cover of a Swedish magazine called "Rekord" which published a long series of hand-cut cards that were supposed to be cut and collected. This can be also found as a "single" card where only the Pele part is cut and graded.

1958 Rekord journal Pele (Sweden) The single cut card of the issue above.

1958-59 Heinerle Pele (Germany) This is one of the most popular Pele´s rookie cards mainly because of it´s affordability compared to the rarer Swedish, Brazilian and Italian rookies. It was issued by Heinerle in Germany during late 1958 or early 1959. According to information from a fellow collector - referring to sources from the actual printing company - this German set started production a few weeks before christmas 1958 and took a pause for the christmas holidays, starting again early January 1959. It is very unclear whether the Pele card was printed with the 1958 or the early 1959 batch but it is widely considered and accepted as a rookie card.

1958 WS-Verlag Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft 90 Brazil-Wales Pele (Germany) The first of two Pele cards from this German issue from 1958. More info about the series here.

1958 WS-Verlag Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft 94 Brazil-Sweden Pele (Germany) The second Pele card depicting Pele from this German issue from 1958.

1958 Edizioni V.A.V. Figurine Calcio Pele/Vava Probably the rarest of Pele rookies, this is an extremely sought-after and tough card from Italy, issued by V.A.V. in 1958, depicting both Pele and Vava.

Team Rookies

The following cards were the first ones depicting Pele as a part of the 1958 Brazil Team, the winners of 1958 World Cup held in Stockholm, Sweden.

1958 Alifabolaget #649 Brazil Team (Sweden)

1958 AVE LTDA Titulares #88 and #100 Brazil Team (Brazil) This rare series included even two team cards depicting Pele, that looked like this:

1958 Rotopress Prärie #97 Brazil Team (Sweden) A tough Swedish issue and one of the very earliest cards depicting Pele as a member of the Brazil team. More info about this series as well as a complete checklist here.

1958 WS-Verlag Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft #47 Brazil Team (Germany) The Brazil team card from this German issue from 1958.

1958-59 Heinerle Pele (Germany) The team card from the other German issue from 1958-59. Also widely accepted as a team rookie card.

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Mysoccercards.com on Facebook!

I have started a Facebook page as a complement to this page as well as an alternative way to access info presented here. Hopefully, also that page will be a more interactive forum for discussions and exchange of information. 

Click this link, and don't forget to like the page and never miss an update. Welcome, the more the merrier!

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1991 Panini Calciatori #106 Gabriel Batistuta

Born in 1969 in Argentina, Gabriel Omar Batistuta was a prolific striker who played most of his club football at Fiorentina in Italy. He is is the eleventh top scorer of all-time in the Italian Serie A league, with 184 goals in 318 matches. In 2004 he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. This is his rookie sticker, issued by Panini in 1991.

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1960-66 Stella Pele variations

Between 1960 and 1966, Stella - a publisher from Italy - issued a series of similar cards depicting Pele in small portrait, large portrait, and standard full sizes.

1960 small portrait issue was printed on grey or white card stock (mostly on white) with no print mark visible near Pele's right eye and with a blank back. This was originally a 1960 Nannina Pele and Stella took the design.

1962 Stella small portrait printed on grey stock only, print mark near Pele's right eye, blank back:

Cards from the 1962 Stella series can also be found uncut in panels, like for example this Pele / Mauro uncut panel:

There were also 3 types of larger portraits issued in 1962 and printed on grey stock only. 

Type 1 featured abbreviated caption in blue ink on back. 

Type 2 presented full caption in brown ink on back:

 and finally type 3 with full caption in blue ink on back:

There is also the standard full size 1962 Stella with team logo:

Lastly there was the Stella large portrait issued in 1966 which was printed on white stock with full caption in blue ink on back, print mark near eye. On this card the last name of Pele was mis-spelled on back (”Nascimiento”).

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1958 Ave LTDA Colecao Titulares

This is a very rare and sought after collection issued in Brazil during 1958 (some sources claim that it was issued even earlier, during late 1957). It is a very important collection that presented all the big stars of the Brazilian football, but mostly featured not only one, but actually two cards of the very young then Pele. These cards have along with the other Pele cards issued in 1958 the status of the so called “rookie” cards of the best of all times. 

Number #86 was short-printed already back then in 1958 and it was considered as one of the tough cards of the collection. It has been counterfeited heavily: photocopied and glued in albums, making it a BIG gamble to purchase albums of the collection when they surface in Brazil and try to remove it. There are three known variations of this card: one with an overprint signature, one with a signature and a star (as shown below) and one without any overprint. This is from my experience the toughest of Pele rookie cards.

Number #50 is a tad easier to find, but still extremely rare and sought after. I haven't seen any different variations than the one shown here:

In the collection there were two cards depicting the Brazilian team (incl. Pele). 

Number #83 is one of the two cards that depicted Garrincha:

As mentioned above, counterfeits are common and were / are mostly printed in Brazil. Those come usually with blank back in contrast to the original backs that looked like this:

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1967 Crack Sport #1 Pele

One more beautiful and very rare issue from Argentina. This series consisted of cards that depicted athletes from various sports (mainly football, boxing and cycling) illustrated as caricatures. The artist behind those really beautiful images was Jorge De lo Ríos, probably the most famous Argentinian caricaturist. De lo Ríos, illustrated with his caricatures a lot of card series but also book covers, ads and the legendary covers of Canal TV, the Argentinian version of the TV Guide.

Like all Argentinian cards, and generally cards from South America this is a very hard card to track down in decent condition.

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1978 Industria Argentina El Libro De Los Mundiales

This Argentinian album was issued before the 1978 World Cup. The cards were made of thin paper, numbered and were supposed to be glued in the special album. The series depicted besides great Argentinian and International footballers of all times even the managers of the national teams and the stadiums of the tournament.

Checklist (partial) :

25. Eusebio 26. Pele 27. Jose F. Sanfilippo 28. Leonel Sanchez 29. Jan Tomaszewski 30. Ermindo Onega 31. Karl Schnellinger 32. Caiman Sanchez 33. Simoes 34. Carlos Alberto 35. Paul Breitner 36. Luis Pereira 37. Victor Ponedelnik 38. Silvio Marzolini 39. Robero Cherro 40. Nilton Santos 41. Francisco Varallo 42. Giuseppe Meazza 43. Josef Masopust 44. Johan Neeskens 45. Ferenc Puskas 46. Angel Amadeo Labruna 47. Hector Scarone 48. Hans-Hubert Vogts 49. Dino Zoff 50. Nestor Raul Rossi 51. Paulo Cesar 52. Humberto Maschio 53. James Peter Greaves 54. Roque Maspoli 55. Teofilo Cubillas 56. Roberto Boninsegna 57. Elias Figueroa 58. Sandor Kocsis 59. Alberto Fouilloux 60. Franz Beckenbauer 61. Florian Albert 116. Vicente Feola 117. Juan Lopez 118. Vittorio Pozzo 119. Helmut Schöen 120. Alf Ramsey 121. Mario Jorge Zagalo 122. Rinus Michels 123. Sepp Herberger 124. Juan Carlos Lorenzo 125. River Plate 126. Velez Sarsfield 127. Rosario Central 128. Mendoza

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1970 Panini Mexico World Cup Pele

The collection that started everything: The Mexico 70 collection was issued by Panini in 1970 and it is regarded as Panini's first international set. Panini issued two different sets of cards and stickers. In Italy they produced green back and red/blue cards, and for the rest of the world (international market) they produced red/black cards. Collectors can also find the “Valida” and “Bisvalida” back variations, that were issued in Italy as redemption cards that the boys of the time could trade in for different prizes.

Here are the three different variations of one of the key cards of the set, those of Pele:

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1958 WS-Verlag Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft

This series was issued by WS-Verlag in Germany during 1958 directly after the end of the World Cup that was held in Sweden. It contained 96 black and white cards (sized 5x7 cm) that were glued in the 32-paged album (sized 21 x 29.5 cm).

The cards depicted the players of the Germany squad of 1958 as well as scenes from different games of the tournament.

This series included three cards depicting the Brazilian team and the very young at the time, Pele and it is safe to conclude that these are the first cards issued in Germany that depicted him on cardboard.

Complete checklist:

1. German Team 2. Sepp Herberger 3. Fritz Herkenrath 4. Heinrich Kwiatkowski 5. Herbert Erhardt 6. Erich Juskowiak 7. Georg Stollenwerk 8. Karl-Heinz Schnellinger 9. Horst Eckel 10. Heinz Wevers 11. Horst Szymaniak 12. Helmut Rahn 13.  Fritz Walter 14. Alfred Schmidt 15. Uwe Seeler 16. Alfred Kelbassa 17. Hans Schäfer 18. Hans Sturm 19. Berni Klodt 20. Uwe Seeler / Hans Schäfer 21. Germany – Argentina (Uwe Seeler) 22. Uwe Seeler 23. Carrizo / Walter 24. Carrizo (Argentina) 25. Germany – Northern Ireland (McParland) 26. Germany – Northern Ireland (McIlroy) 27. Germany – Northern Ireland (Gregg / Schäfer) 28. Czechoslovakia – Germany 29.  Chechoslovakia – Germany (Pluskal / Schäfer) 30. The golden goal (Helmut Rahn) 31.  Fritz Walter / Crnkovic 32. Germany – Yugoslavia 33. Sweden – Wales 34. England – Soviet Union (Jascin / Finney) 35. Russian players in training 36.  Sweden and Germany Teams 37. Schäfer / Links / Schnellinger / Herkenrath 38. Sweden – Germany (Gunnar Gren) 39. Germany – Sweden (Erhard / Eckel) 40. Germany – Sweden (Skoglund / Stollenwerk) 41. Swedish goal against Germany 42. Kelbassa / Schäfer 43. Germany attacks against France 44. France – Germany (Kwiarkowski ) 45. Sweden Team 46. Brazil Team 47. Brazil Team 48.  German Team in front of hotel 49.  Training camp of the German Team (in Gottskär) 50.  Training camp of the German Team (in Gottskär) 51. Training camp of the German Team (in Saltsjöbad) 52. German players dancing 53.  German folk dance 54.  German players signing autographs 55.  The modern Football stadium in Malmö 56.  Germany training session before the match against Yugoslavia 57.  Germany -  Yogoslavia (Sijakovic / Schäfer) 58. Germany – Chechoslovakia (Schäfer) 59.  Germany – Sweden (Gunnar Gren) 60. Germany – Sweden (Juskowiak) 61. Sweden Team in training session 62. Germany – Sweden 63.  Arthur Ellis / Reginald Leafe (English Referees) 64.  Northern Ireland Team 65. Argentina Team in training session 66. Dellacha / Carrizo / Vairo (Argentina) 67. Lombardo / Rossi (Argentina) 68.  Argentina – Northern Ireland (Merendez / Gregg) 69. Lombardo (Argentina) 70. Sweden – Mexico 71. Sweden – Mexico (Carbarajal) 72. Northern Ireland – CSR 73. Northern Ireland Team 74. Yugoslavia – Scottland (Petakovits) 75. Beara (Yugoslavia) 76. Brazil – Wales 77. Brazil – Soviet Union (Santos / Jaschin) 78. England – Soviet Union (Mac Donald) 79. Brazil – Austria 80. Hungary – Mexico (Sandor) 81. Hungary – Mexico (Carbajal / Budai) 82. Sweden – Soviet Union (Hamrin / Jaschin) 83. Dolejsi (Chechoslovakia) 84. Hungary – Wales (Kelsey) 85. Argentina – Northern Ireland 86. North Ireland – CSR (Zikan / Upriehard) 87. Hungary – Wales 88. Austria Team 89. Brazil – Austria 90. Brazil – Wales (Pele) 91. Brazil – Wales (Bellini / Santos) 92. Didi (Brazil) 93. Brazil – Sweden (Hamrin / Bellini) 94. Brazil – Sweden (Pele) 95. King Gustav Adolf among Brazilian players and officials 96. Bellini (Brazil)

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1968 Difusora De Cultura S.A. Juegos Olympicos #234 Pele

Spanish cards have almost always a special charm. Their designs and formats are very often unique and beautiful. Many of them are very rare too, and now a days very tough to find in really good condition, since most of them were glued in albums. 

This series was issued by a company called “Difusora De Cultura S.A.” in 1968 and it was called “Juegos Olympicos”. Card #234 was Pele and #226 was Brazil 1962 Team. It is one of the rarest Spanish cards depicting Pele from the 60s.

Here is #226 depicting the Brazilian winning team of 1962:

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1902 Ogden's Cigarettes Tabs General Interest "F Series" #155 G. O. Smith

Gilbert Oswald Smith, better known as G. O. Smith was a nineteenth-century amateur footballer often referred to as "the first great centre forward". Smith played most of his career for the Corinthians, then the best-known amateur football club in Britain. Smith's scoring record for the club (132 goals in 137 matches) remains one of the best strike rates in the history of the game. Smith captained the England team on at least 13 between 1896 and 1901, winning at least eight games, possibly as many as ten, and drawing two. He is considered the first real football superstar and the first one to achieve wide recognition among several generations. 

This card was issued in 1902 in U.K. and were available with the purchase of Ogden's Cigarettes.

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1987 Placar Copa União Romário

Romário de Souza Faria, is regarded as one of the greatest forwards of all time. He helped Brazil win the 1994 FIFA World Cup, receiving the Golden Ball as player of the tournament. He was named FIFA World Player of the Year the same year. He came fifth in the FIFA Player of the Century internet poll in 1999, was chosen in the FIFA World Cup Dream Team in 2002, and was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players in 2004.

This very hard to find Brazilian card issued by Placar is his second earliest card (there is one more issued in 1986 depicting him in a television set). Romário was then still playing for his first team, Vasco da Gama.