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Sunday, July 15, 2018

Congratulations France!

What a fantastic World Cup that was.  I watched almost the entire thing, from the outset of the group stage right through today's thrilling final.  I'm very happy for France and their deserving win, especially since it's my favorite country outside the United States, and one I've visited more than once already.

I've mentioned lately that I've been picking up more soccer cards for my collection than anything else, I guess it's the World Cup impacting my collecting.  One recent pick-up in particular though really had me smiling...

This Kylian Mbappe Green & Orange Wave parallel from the 2018 Prizm World Cup set was potentially the most I've ever spent on a single soccer card at $14.99, but I have a feeling it may prove to be a bargain in the long run.

Mbappe is already tagged as the heir apparent to Ronaldo or Messi, and if you watched much of the tournament that just wrapped up it's easy to see why.  At just 19 years of age he's already been named Young Player of the Year in France's top professional football league for consecutive years, and only minutes ago won a World Cup with the national team!  Not only did Kylian not look out of place among his more experienced peers, he looked like an absolute star.

Mbappe ended the tournament with four goals, including France's last goal in today's final.  In doing so he became the first teenager with multiple goals in a World Cup game, and the first teenager to score in a World Cup final since...

Yup.  Pretty damn cool.

There's obviously a long road ahead of him, and anything can happen over time, but it will certainly be a lot of fun watching this kid's career unfold.  For me, it will be even more fun to witness with this shiny representation of his first historic World Cup firmly entrenched in my soccer collection.

I've actually picked up this card and a couple of other Mbappe cards over the past couple of weeks, hoping to build up a small collection before his prices skyrocket beyond what I'm able to pay.  Just think, he's young enough that we may see him play in another three or even four World Cups for his country!

How about you, did you watch any of this year's World Cup?  Did you pick up any cardboard, or even other collectibles to commemorate it?  If so I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

Congratulations again to France!
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3 comments:

  1. The Shlabotnik ReportJuly 15, 2018 at 4:41 PM

    For me it's been a mild curiosity; I haven't gotten sucked in, but I've watched bits and pieces as it went along. I'm very much intrigued at the idea of the Panini sticker albums as an international phenomenon, but I wouldn't be doing the album and the stickers aren't terribly interesting by themselves, so I didn't bother.

    Not that I do this a lot, but I'd much rather watch soccer in person than on TV.

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  2. The Shlabotnik ReportJuly 15, 2018 at 4:43 PM

    As soon as I posted my comment, I realized I didn't make my point entirely clear... I'd much rather watch lower levels of soccer in person than the world's best on TV.

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  3. FujiJuly 16, 2018 at 1:34 AM

    One of my friends has been bugging me for two weeks about finding her a Mbappe card. One of these days I'll grab one, but right now they're way too hot.

    ReplyDelete