Panini World Cup 2026: the full 980-sticker checklist and the colour Extras
The 2026 World Cup is under way — and with it the planet's most durable collecting ritual: the Panini sticker album. The "got it, got it, need it" routine is half a century old, and this year it covers 48 national teams for the first time. Here is what is inside the album, what the serious collectors are hunting, and how to finish it without going broke.
What is inside the album
The complete collection is 980 stickers:
- 48 teams × 20 stickers — 960
- the FWC special section — the official emblem, the trophy and World Cup history
- the Panini logo sticker — number 00, the one the album opens with
The jump to 48 teams is what makes this edition bigger than any before it: sixteen more squads than 2022, which is 320 extra stickers to chase.
How each team page works
Every team has the same twenty-sticker structure:
- #1 — the team crest, a foil sticker
- #13 — the team photo
- the rest — the squad players
The foil crests are the ones that hang around longest: they are the most actively requested stickers in swaps.
Extra Stickers — the real chase
There is a separate hunt on top: 20 superstar stickers, each existing in four colour versions — Purple, Bronze, Silver and Gold. A colour version falls roughly once every 100 packets, which makes them the rarest thing in the collection.
Among the stars with colour versions are Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham.
The FWC section — the tournament's own history
The album's opening pages are not about the teams but about the tournament itself: the official emblem, the trophy, the landmark moments of past World Cups. These stickers carry the FWC code and count towards the full checklist.
How to finish the album without ruining yourself
Stickers come out of packets at random, so towards the end almost every new packet is nothing but duplicates. The classic answer, proven by generations, is swapping:
1. Open the full Panini WC 2026 checklist on ColleX — all 980 stickers with photos
2. Mark "Have" and "Want" — progress per team is counted for you
3. Mark duplicates with a quantity of 2 or more, and the platform shows who needs them
4. Agree a swap with another collector — in person or by post
FAQ
How many stickers are in the Panini World Cup 2026 album?
980: twenty stickers for each of the 48 teams, plus the FWC special section with the logo sticker.
What are Extra Stickers?
Twenty superstar stickers in four colour versions — Purple, Bronze, Silver and Gold — which turn up roughly once every 100 packets.
Which sticker is number 1 for each team?
The team crest, and it is a foil sticker. Number 13 is the team photo; the remaining eighteen are players.
Where do I keep the checklist?
On ColleX: mark "Have" / "Want", watch your progress per team, and find swaps for your duplicates.
So — how many stickers are in your album already, and have you pulled a single colour version yet?