Recent Soccer Pickups

[Ulidia]

Originally Posted by aljurgela

Wow.... nice contact! (palancas) How in the world did you get those?

Congrats!

I’ve been a collector of football (soccer) memorabilia for almost three and a half decades, since the age of 9. I’ve never collected cards in any shape or form except for some of the Panini World Cup sticker albums. My collection revolves around programmes / programs, focusing on Northern Ireland national team programs and programs issued by Northern Irish clubs.


I had assembled a fairly impressive collection of rare, albeit fairly niche in terms of collector appeal, by my early 20s. In particular, pre World War Two programs from Northern Ireland are especially rare as so much of the paper was donated for the war effort.


I sold that collection to concentrate more on medals i.e. medals won by players for winning competitions, included higher end items such as European Cup Winners medals. This remained my focus until a few years ago when I saw a trophy up for auction in a major auction house, bought it, became hooked on its beauty and decided to try to obtain more trophies.


I have a good, trusted contact in Madrid and have been able to source a small number of trophies this way. The trophies in the photo shown here (Spanish Copa del Rey, European Cup, Spanish La Liga) were each made by Alegre, the Madrid jeweller than is officially commissioned by the Spanish Football Federation.


The trophies are expensive and negotiating for these and even logistically bringing them back to Northern Ireland where I house them can be difficult. It’s fair to say that I don’t know anyone else who collects these sorts of items - it’s certainly not a mainstream collectors’ market. Ultimately, I’m hoping to donate by long-term loan some of the trophies to a museum in Northern Ireland.


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