Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden was "obsessed" with collecting Panini stickers last season and would ask his girlfriend to "nip into the shop" to get him every pack they had in stock.
Last year, in an interview with The Telegraph, Foden's family opened up about the England international's love for stickers.
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“He’s obsessed with these stickers at the moment,” said his girlfriend Becca Cooke. “We’d been to the zoo this week and I popped into Morrison’s on the way home and had to ring him because I saw they had a big box of stickers there.
"We’ll be driving along and he’s like, ‘Stop, they sell stickers there. Go on Bec, can you nip into that shop and get me every pack they’ve got. I don’t want them to know it’s me’.”
Foden's mum, Claire, also gave the world an insight into the 22-year-old's sticker obsession.
“Me and his dad FaceTimed him when he was away with England last month and he’s sat there in his room doing his sticker books,” she said.
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“I think he’s got about four on the go. Panini, Match Attax. It’s hysterical. It’s a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but that’s how obsessed he is about football.”
At one stage, the Manchester City academy product was one sticker away from completing his 2021/22 collection but rather ironically, he was missing... Phil Foden.
Foden isn't the only avid collector in world football. Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Christoph Kramer has done what many Pokemon fans can only dream of.
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The former Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Bochum player is the proud owner of all 151 original cards, including a base set Charizard, which is currently on sale for a small fortune online.
In an interview with SPORTbible, he admitted it was a "childhood dream" to collect them all.
"I guess every child born in the 90's was a huge Pokémon fan," Kramer tells us. "It was great to collect the cards in primary school."
So how did he manage to catch 'em all? And what does his Gladbach teammates think of his collection?
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"I have to say that I bought some cards aswell, but I didn't pay lots." Kramer says. "I don't know exactly how much the value is, but I hope the time plays for me, like we would say in German. But I would never sell them.
"I think most of them [my teammates] did the same as a kid, but they gave their cards away and stopped collecting. But they say respect and congratulations to me!"
As you can see in the above photo, it appears Kramer has cards from the original Base, Jungle and Fossil sets.
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The 29-year-old revealed to us that his favourite Pokemon card is Simsala, otherwise known as Alakazam, and the hardest card to track down was of course Glurak, also known as Charizard.
But when asked if he prefer's Pokemon over football, Kramer quickly played it down. "No of course not!" he says. "Pokémon is a childhood hobby. But football is my one and only passion."
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Panini/Instagram - philfodenTopics: Phil Foden, Manchester City, Premier League, England