3 minute read
Around the World: France
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.
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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 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 among them, but it was a more folically challenged player who outshone them all on the biggest stage. Yordan
USA 94 ALBUM FACTS – UK AND EIRE EDITION
PAGES: 48 ALBUM PRICE: 50P NUMBER OF STICKERS: 444 (INTERNATIONAL); 416 (UK AND EIRE) PACKET COST: 25P FOR SIX STICKERS
Lechkov’s (mostly) bald head had changed little from his sticker by the time he headed in the winning goal for Bulgaria in their quarterfinal with holders Germany.The Republic of Ireland were generally underwhelming, but still gave us Ray Houghton’s memorable winner and celebratory forwardroll in their opening match against Italy. Houghton had also stayed with the reliable haircut that had seen him through many Panini albums of the ’80s and ’90s.
Saudi Arabia’s Saeed Owairan (as listed on his USA 94 sticker, although he went by the more commonly used Saeed AlOwairan by the time of Panini’s France 98) scored one of the all-time great World Cup goals with his lung-busting dribble past half of the opposition in a 1–0 win against Belgium.
Barcelona’s Hristo Stoichkov was Bulgaria’s talisman, scoring six goals on the way to sharing the Golden Boot with Oleg Salenko, who also scored half a dozen times for Russia despite getting knocked out in the first round. Salenko scored a penalty in his team’s second match (against Sweden), before adding five more in an astonishing 6–1 win over Cameroon, when they had already been eliminated.
The African side’s consolation goal came from Roger Milla – back in a Panini World Cup album for the first time since Espana 82, at the grand old age of 42.
Sweden qualified (along with Brazil) from Group A in what was a golden period for them, having reached the semi-finals of Euro 92. Tomas Brolin and Martin Dahlin were once again their attacking threat, along with Kennet Andersson, who missed out on a Panini sticker to a dreadlocked Henrik Larsson. Goalkeeper Thomas Ravelli became another well-known face during the tournament, his penalty-saving heroics against Romania securing the Swedes a place in the last four.
Nigeria left an indelible mark on their first World Cup, from the moment Rashidi Yekini cavorted
