Fan 'completes' 1996 Premier League sticker album

A man who was missing six stickers from a 1990s football album tracked down the players in question so he could complete his collection.

Adam Carroll-Smith, a 29-year-old Portsmouth fan who lives in the city, found the 1996 Merlin Premier League album in his attic.

It took him six months to trace the missing players, visit them and take their photos for his album.

Mr Carroll- Smith said: "They were all fantastic, really accommodating guys."

He described how he always thought he had completed the 1996 album but had a "gut punch" when he opened it 16 years later to discover six spaces remained.
Adam carroll-Smith Adam Carroll-Smith eventually threw the album into the sea

He immediately decided "a great wrong had to be righted" and started an internet search for former Southampton and Blackburn winger Stuart Ripley.

Now a solicitor, Ripley invited Mr Carroll-Smith to Manchester to take his picture.

Finding the two foreign stars he was missing in his album proved more problematic.

After two cross-channel trips, Mr Carroll-Smith found Newcastle United's Philippe Albert was working in the fruit and vegetable trade in his native Belgium.

Blackburn's Norwegian midfielder Lars Bohinen, meanwhile, was taking part in a Scandinavian version of Strictly Come Dancing.

The rest of the six players were tracked down through internet searching, social media conversations and word-of-mouth contacts through networks of football fans.

from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-24992646

did you ever collect premier league stickers?

I completed this 96 album, the only one i completed out of about 10 years collecting, sadly i lost it when i moved.

I use to collect the panini stickers when i was at primary school in the late 70's - early 80's. Swappsies at play time, and all that. my dad use to buy me five packs of 5 every Saturday. The thrill of opening them was like nothing else. Small minds...............

I used to collect them back in the day. Great fun.

My niece had the euro 2012 album.

Rolled back the years when she opend the pack to see who she had got.

I never completed one, didn't even come close either. I had that album though

I can remember lads who completed theres would throw up all there spares up in the air at dinner time and there would be a mass brawl on the playground haha

Soldier_Of_Fortune wrote:I never completed one, didn't even come close either. I had that album though

I can remember lads who completed theres would throw up all there spares up in the air at dinner time and there would be a mass brawl on the playground haha

I am sure that is a breach of health and safety