The plan had been one packet, just to see what they looked like.
Then it became two, so I could put together a five-a-side team. Then my friend Gavin, a Manchester United Women fan, sent over photos of his sticker album, laden with facts, statistics and analysis. What was all that if not a necessary resource for a women’s football writer? I would buy the book and go no further. I would not be drawn into finding 347 stickers. Not at the age of 26.
This is how the Women’s Super League (WSL) Panini stickers get you. I got the book on December 19. Twenty-seven days later, on January 15, I had completed it.
(Katie Whyatt/The Athletic)
Why would you bother? There is no golden key to a gilded Panini city, with doors that tear off their hinges like stickers from their backs and wallpapers patterned with the Swaps and Needs lists of those who came before.
But sceptics just won’t get it. “Well done,” they would probably mutter, and then, “What are you going to do with it now?”
But this endeavour tells us something valuable. The demand for England goalkeeper Mary Earps’ shirt, selling out in five minutes once it was finally for sale having been unavailable during last summer’s World Cup, speaks volumes about the demand for women’s football and how retailers…
