Mondial Magazine (https://mundialmag.com) is an incredible piece. Feels like walking through someone's personal futbol collection. Their dives into jerseys and specific periods are amazing. CAUTION: You may spend your entire day getting lost in this stuff.

Latest issue also has great piece on Baggio curated by the amazing James Campbell Taylor (https://www.jamescampbelltaylor.com)

Just arrived back from a family vacation in Lisbon and had a little bit of time for the hobby in Lisbon. On the way to check out the surf at Costa da Caparica, we stopped at Alamada Forum, where a collector Fernando C. from Porto had set up a collection of all the Euro Cup sticker collections. Very cool collection. I was impressed with the pristine condition of his collection and the effort to share his collection at this large mall. The collection was so well taken care of. Building friendship and community via swapping and set completing sets is a key factor in Portuguese cromos (stickers/cards) collecting. Had a couple of tables set up for swapping which were occupied by some young collectors (overhead pic). Had the chance to visit Dulce Guarda and Ivan Braz, founders of Splink, a top startup in Europe dedicated to collectibles. I had previously written a post here before regarding Splink, check it out. Splink - there it is. (onmantel.com). Dulce kindly gifted me a myjersey collectible of Eusebio from the 1961/62 season. That is when Benfica won the European Cup (now called the Champions league). Will post part 2 of the Lisbon story later this week regarding The Curse from that great team. By the way, I wanted to watch the France vs Portugal Euro quarter-final from downtown Lisbon and a friendly bartender told me the night before that the only way to get a good seat for the 8.00 pm game was to show up at the bar (The George) at 4.30 and eat and drink until 8 to hold the table. My family complied. Game went to overtime and pens, which when you do the math, is about 6-7 hours of eating and drinking - only to have Joao Felix hit the post in the penalty shootout for France to advance to the semifinals. C'est la vie!!

((bio+art+story+create)/rarity) x passion = collect
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Tomorrow, England plays Brazil at Wembley in a national team "friendly", as each team respectively preps for Copa America and the Euro Cup this summer. Copa America will the held in the US (pretty excited, as my brother and I have tickets to the Brazil vs Columbia game at Levi stadium), while the Euros will be in Germany. Besides these two teams being among the favorites to win each tournament, both teams have a deep fubol history. While I don't collect many tickets, I do enjoy having this one in my collection from the England vs Germany game in 1963, also at Wembley. Love these highlights and I always wonder where in the crowd this ticket was held. England 1 - Brazil 1 (1963) - YouTube
I always love a good "friendly". These teams are playing with pride on the line and they seem to play with same aggression, but more freely without the fear of a dropped point costing them their tournament lines. You also have the possibility of seeing young prospects, like Kobbie Mainoo, make their England debut for example. Looking forward to watching England vs Brazil at Wembley again 61 years later, should be a good one.
For an 'unfriendly" game, there is always Mexico vs USA rivalry on Sunday in the Concacaf Nations League final. No slight or kick will go unanswered. Should be a tense one. US will need to pick it up after a poor performance against Jamaica in the semis. With rain in the forecast, this will be a great weekend to watch the friendlies and the unfriendly!