Argentine plazas buzz with WC sticker trading fever

With just under a month until the FIFA World Cup kicks off, thousands of people are filling Argentine plazas strategizing to win a different game that has become a beloved part of the quadrennial competition: collecting and trading stickers to complete the official World Cup sticker book.

For more than half a century, Panini sticker books have been a treasured part of the World Cup experience, with schools, plazas and even offices becoming zones to barter for coveted rare stickers and duplicates laid out ready to be discarded.

In South America, swapping stickers is even more important than simply collecting them, with WhatsApp groups, apps and websites popping up to facilitate the trades.

On Sunday, throngs of people gathered in the heart of Buenos Aires exchanging multi-coloured decks of stickers with the faces of some of the world’s most famous soccer players, some doling them out on a table like a dealer in a poker game.

Children cradle books where they carefully paste the stickers. “This connects you with the world. Everyone does it,” said Juan Valora, a fan who was collecting stickers with his girlfriend.

“And if this was virtual, you wouldn’t be face to face looking at the cards and trading them.

I think you’d miss out a bit on the human touch.” Panini launched its largest sticker collection ever for this World Cup, coinciding with the increase in participating countries from 32 to 48.

Each pack contains seven stickers, and the price in both Argentina and Uruguay is around $1.50.

The legendary sticker books, which can sell online for thousands of dollars, will come to an end after the 2030 World Cup.