Overview
- Panini held a public activation at Rockefeller Center on Thursday that featured a ceremonial sticker swap with Alessandro Nesta, Eli Manning and Shaun O’Hara to promote its FIFA World Cup 2026 sticker album.
- The 2026 Panini album is the company’s largest ever, covering all 48 teams with 980 player stickers and is being sold on Panini’s site and at major U.S. retailers including Walmart, Target and Amazon.
- Nesta used the event to argue that Italy’s third straight failure to qualify reflects deeper cultural and structural failures, saying underfunded youth academies and a lack of investment—not just coaching—are to blame.
- At the pop-up Manning traded for a Lamine Yamal sticker, said he will attend France vs. Senegal at MetLife Stadium and called rooting for the U.S. a ‘long shot’ that would require a ‘magic play.’
- Local fan activity around the Panini launch feeds into broader New York‑area World Cup build-up, while separate subpoenas issued in late May are probing FIFA ticketing practices in New York and New Jersey as an ongoing legal review.