Your lovely article about Panini football stickers (Writers on their World Cup Panini collecting days: ‘We all remember the playground twerp’, 9 May) reminded me of my own sticker albums from the 70s and 80s. My favourite album and World Cup was Spain 1982.
I watched the games in Yugoslavia, where I grew up. We excitedly followed our own team, which in the end failed to live up to its reputation as the “European Brazilians”. The Brazilian Brazilians, meanwhile, had a fabulous team of their own, full of charismatic superstars who looked great on stickers and were the most valuable currency in the playground.
But what prompted me to write was the photo included with your article, in which the most noticeable Panini album is the Yugoslav edition from that 1982 World Cup, identical to the one I had at the time. It felt almost uncanny to see it there, thinking that all these years later my favourite newspaper published an article about my favourite childhood hobby and my favourite sporting event with a kind of special personal message included. Thank you.
Denis Hodžić
London
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