Every 4 years one of the biggest events in the sports world happens in some country and this year it is going to take place in Russia. The FIFA World Cup is long awaited by soccer lovers and along with it, a second protagonist makes children, teenagers, adults and seniors very happy. This protagonist is the FIFA World Cup Album.
Brazil is the largest consumer of this album’s cards among the 92 countries that have the collection for sale. It is easy to find people on the streets and on train stations switching the repeated cards. On Cásper Líbero University corridor’s the fever has already hit the students and, because of that, Her Campus talked to them to understand better the reasons that make the activity of collecting the album so special.
Isabelly Simoncello, second year of Journalism, told us that her motivation to complete the World Cup album is her father. According to her, soccer has become a means of communication with her father. It is a way that they found to be closer. Both of them are searching for Messi’s card, however, most of the people with whom she exchanges the repeated stickers are from Cásper: “You see a group switching the cards and you go there to switch with them”, she told.
A student who has been a lot in this switching groups is Victor Padilha, first year of Journalism. But he hasn’t had a lot of success, because there were just a fill stickers missing for him to complete his album, so he had to appeal for Panini, the editorial group that has the rights to sell the World Cup albums. He ordered his lasts cards: “Only the shining ones were missing and I couldn’t find them anywhere! I ran the whole college! I even talked to to Radio, TV & Internet and Publicity students, but couldn’t find it!”. Because of this order, he says that he didn’t feel the same sensation as when completed the album from past Cups: “I was on the battle so this was, like, the one that gave me more relief when I completed, but didn’t give me that feeling of: “YES! I made it!”. Lacked this sensation”.
Just like Victor, freshman Jorge Oliveira says that the funny part is not just to complete the album, but also the process of completing and the feeling of being part of something bigger. He collects since the 2006 World Cup, because for him it is already a tradition and he feels that, with the album, he makes part of a story. “The World Cup is not an event, is the event, is the moment and this is the way I found to be part of it. When you complete all those pages… Everytime you collect you are thinking about the future, thinking that one day you will look at it with a relative of yours, with a friend, with your son and this is the most important point of having the album, it is something for the future. It will be a memory”.
Thaisi Carvalho, student of the first year of Journalism, also believes in a bigger cause. “I think that collecting the album is a very special moment, because it represents the union of generations that have interest for World Cups. I have already been at an exchanging cards event at a mall and I switched with children, adults, seniors and that made me very happy”.
Outside the university, Her Campus found a fanatic character who felt a bigger connection with the album. “I have a lot of superstition with soccer. I always have to wear the same clothes, at the same place… mainly in matches of Corinthians. I just feel that I got to. Them, the superstition also came to the album, because, when there were about 200 cards left for me to complete my album, I noticed that I had no team complete, but Brazil’s were the one that I had the fewer players missing. At the same day that I’ve noticed this fact, I completed all the brazilian players! It was a lot of coincidence noticing and completing at the same day! So I knew that there were something … I felt something with the Sixth Championship, because among so many countries, so many pages for me to complete, Brazil is the first? There is something there! Now the Sixth Championship comes! On other Cups, I always felt more doubt, less confidence, but this one is ours!”. The superstitious figure is Bruna de Moraes, a fanatic soccer fan who always completes the World Cup Album.
Bruna also shared that she went far to switch the cards: “I don’t exchange it only with friends and family. I exchange with people that I’ve never talked before, from the other side of the city. I also exchanged with the mother of a friend who is living in the USA! I sent her some stickers, and she sent the ones I needed by a friend who gave it to me”. She states that she did this not only to see the book complete, but also to meet different people and to learn more about the history of other countries national team.
We really hope for Bruna’s forebodings to be right, because we want the Sixth Championship!