USA 94
Football’s biggest event came to America for the first time, while Panini offered up an album full of razzamatazz as players like Romario, Yordan Lechkov and Roberto Baggio shone. Just in case there was any doubt about the identity of the host nation, the exterior and first few pages of USA 94 featured plenty of stars and stripes, as well as the Statue of Liberty – far jazzier than previous Panini World Cup albums. These lively artworks helped distract from the fact that this album didn’t carry official World Cup branding. For the International, and UK and Eire editions, every country (bar Bolivia, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia) was given a double-page spread containing 17 individual player stickers. The tournament did not feature England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, who all failed to make it through the qualifiers. Romania made the most of their narrow escape during qualifying to be one of the most attractive sides during the tournament. Gheorghe Hagi led the way, with a supporting cast of players including Dan Petrescu, Gheorghe Popescu, Ilie Dumitrescu and Florin Răducioiu, who all went on to
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play in the Premier League. Although Brazil and Italy reached the final, most of the stand-out USA 94 moments were provided by some of the less-fancied nations going into the tournament – besides Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden and Nigeria all shone.
USA 94 was an album festooned with some fine mullets, including Bulgaria’s Trifon Ivanov, Switzerland’s Alain Sutter and Mexico’s Miguel Herrera. USA 94 was an album festooned with some fine mullets, including Bulgaria’s Trifon Ivanov, Switzerland’s Alain Sutter and Mexico’s Miguel Herrera among them, but it was a more folically challenged player who outshone them all on the biggest stage. Yordan
