Dublin Football Stickers: Instagram page celebrates fans from around Europe

They’re easy to miss, but take a closer look at the lampposts the next time you’re wandering around the city centre and you might spot something quite interesting – football stickers from all over Europe.

Dublin-based writer James Hendicott says his five-year-old son Adam started pointing them out on the walk to school. That gave him the idea and now photos of his finds can be found on an Instagram page, Dublin Football Stickers. There are dozens of examples from 15 or 20 countries, posted at the rate of about one a day.

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He says there seems to be an underdog spirit at play: “They're very rarely for the big teams. You don't tend to find Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona but there's an absolute spate of them for some little teams. It seems to be a 'here we are, we exist' sort of thing.

“I’m interested in the little clubs who are just about managing to hang in there,” he says. “There's more of the essence of what football is in that for me than there ever will be in the Champions League.”

Here are some of James’s favourites:

"The first sticker I posted was for the local fan group for Scottish side Hibernian"

"There are plenty of colourful local ones, too, like this from a Shelbourne fan group"

"And this from St Patrick's Athletic"

"There are some from European giants, like Borussia Dortmund"

"...and Benfica"

"I try to be neutral in what I post. I'm an Aston Villa fan, so posting this Birmingham City sticker was a symbol of that"

"German clubs seems to be best represented, with second-tier club St Pauli the most common of all"

"My favourites, though, are those from obscure clubs that almost seem like a scream for representation. SV Austria Salzburg is a phoenix club playing low-level Austrian football, formed as a fans' protest against the takeover by Red Bull of the city's main team"

"Runcorn Linnets play in the eighth tier of the English football pyramid"

"Grund FC are a tiny club from Budapest"

"FC Unkel 80 are a German club small enough to have only a very modest internet presence"

"And some, well they just seem very of the moment"