ITALIA 90 Gazza’s tears, Pavarotti singing ‘Nessun Dorma’, the Republic of Ireland’s army of fans, New Order’s ‘World in Motion’… they contributed to the magic of Italia 90 – alongside the ever-reliable Panini World Cup sticker album. The UK release of Italia 90 once more replicated the standard ‘International’ version, unlike in several other nations such as Sweden, Mexico and Brazil who all opted for their own cover design. Italia 90’s front cover dotted the flags of the 24 qualifiers around a drawing of two players battling for a stray ball, one in a generic red kit and the other immediately redolent of the Sweden strip.
Costa Rica were undone in round two by a hat-trick from the spectacularly mulleted Tomáš Skuhravý whose Italia 90 sticker didn’t do his hair justice. Tournament branding, stadiums and picturesque images of the host cities filled the opening five pages, along with nine extra images of mascot Ciao showing off his ball skills. Hosts Italy took what now appeared to be their usual place
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as the first nation in the team pages. In a design change, the player section was kicked off by two goalkeepers near the top of the first of the double-page spreads, just below the foil badge. Each team had 17 players (one more than in Espana 82 and Mexico 86), as well as the team group and badge. Five nations were restricted to a single page, which only had room for 16 players (two to a sticker), to go with the team shot and badge. Out of those five, Cameroon and Costa Rica won four of their six combined group matches while UAE, South Korea and Egypt didn’t win a match between them. Costa Rica were undone in round two by a hat-trick from the spectacularly mulleted Tomáš Skuhravý from Czechoslovakia – whose Italia 90 sticker didn’t do his hair justice. Cameroon made it past the Round of 16 thanks to two goals from 38-year-old Roger Milla. The striker didn’t
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