Being retired has a few perks, one being I can pretty much do what I want most days. Lately, that's meant a lot of World Cup soccer. I know, I know...you hate soccer.  Well, you're missing out on a great deal of fun if you're ignoring the WC. This one has been the best I can remember...amazing goals, late match drama, retired Argentine legend Maradona acting like a complete tool. This WC has had it all.

Having said that yesterday was a real drag. My favorite international player (Lionel Messi) got the boot by France and my beloved Portugal squad was smothered by Uraguay. But even on a day that I was disappointed by the results, I saw wonderful performances by France's 19-year-old Kylian Mbappé and Uraguay's Edinson Cavani who both scored twice.

Frank Mann, (born on 17 March 1891 in Nottingham - July, 1966), was an English football half back. In his early days, he played for Aston Villa F.C., Huddersfield Town A.F.C. and Manchester City F.C.. In March 1923, he was sold to Manchester United F.C.. He would stay with United until 1930 when he retired from playing professionally at the age of 39, and carried on playing non-league football for a while with Mossley.

During his United career, he made 197 appearances and scored five goals. He helped them win promotion to the First Division in 1926. He played for them until the age of 39, making him one of the oldest players ever to play for the club.

Here's a blown up view of the back. My scanner balked at these so I scanned one of the binder pages.



British cigarette companies, particularly Player offered some wonderful cards. I've got a couple of sets including military uniform and nature-based cards. Fascinating stuff to me. 

This card comes from the 1975 Topps (English) Football set. The design is familiar to everyone reading this. Just like the Topps baseball set of the same year it's about as colorful (colourful?) as a set can get. It would be fun to see this thing in binder pages. For an idea of what it would look like click to this hobby site. I don't have the time or inclination at the moment but this would be a fun set to chase. If you have even the slightest interest in soccer cards you should poke around this site. It's got tons of info and pics.

I don't remember Jim Holton but he also played in the old MSL or whatever it was they called the prior US pro soccer league. His time with Man United came when the club was struggling and they even suffered (gasp) relegation! Soccer fans, particularly English ones, love to sing/chant during games and apparently this was a thing in Holton's day:



Joe hit me with more Orioles, too. Some suffered from my scanner's aversion to bright white borders but these were fine:

Shiny Bowman sluggers. I only realized in the last year that Bowman isn't all rookies/minor league prospects.

Brooksie Panini Diamond King. Sweet card. I sure wish they had a license.


University of Houston alum Michael Bourn. His Oriole career ended before it started with a hand injury. I had him a few years back in fantasy so this one will bump the old one. Orioles card--->any other card.


Added value bonus! A pic I found of Jim Holton from the 80s on getty. Him, his wife and kid are wearing the caps he was awarded for his International competition appearances with Scotland. Groovy, yes?


Thanks for the cards, Joe. And I'll have another Shlabotnik-centric post this week.

Last week I ventured into WalMart, a place I usually avoid. The two in my vicinity rarely have any cards worth looking at. That's why I'll drive over a toll bridge to get to Target. But when it's 11 p.m., you are facing an early wake-up call and you are fresh out of coffee creamer its any port in a storm!

WalMart surprised me by having not only a nice supply of 2016 Football, new Topps Heritage High Number packs and two(!) 2016 Soccer releases, Topps and Donruss.

I bought a hanger package of each of the soccer products. Both came with two packs and what they advertised as bonus cards. I both cases I got an extra bonus card so that's a plus. That never happens to me with baseball of football cards. The bonus cards are shiny chrome things that a) don't scan well and b) otherwise look like the regular cards. The two cards above are both bonus cards.

The Topps cards are very 'busy'. The cards are of players from teams involved in the European Champions League. They are designed to be used as part of some sort of digital game. Who the heck has time for that nonsense?

Also like Topps the regular cards are, at least to me, more attractive than the chrome ones.

This 1968 Topps card of Tom Beer came from the pile of cards I grabbed at my LCS a month ago. Cost me a quarter and it goes in my Houston Cougar alum binder. I was looking though that stack the other day and this card nagged at me. It sure looks like an English football (soccer) card.

Sure enough it's the same design as the 1969 A&BC set, several of which I received from Mark Hoyle and posted awhile back.


Those two comapanies had a working relationship and some designs from Topps US issues showed up on English soccer cards. This sort of stuff fascinates me for some reason.

I coached soccer for many years and I still have a love for the game. But I don't follow much of the comings and goings. I'm a Manchester United fan and watch their English Premier League games regularly (Thanks, NBC!) but the rest of the machinations of international soccer make my head swim. I can't get my head around teams playing for several different championships simultaneously. But I am interested in the World Cup. And I'll remain interested as long as one of my four rooting interests remain alive....Germany, Portugal, Italy and the USA. Those three European clubs represent (most of) my blood, the USA is, well, America!

And today the US takes on Portugal. Looks like a crucial game for both teams. They both are looking for that second spot in their group behind Germany. I'll be watching at a park in downtown Houston probably. Watching in a group, with a couple of brews, is a lot of fun.

Anyway, that's a drawn out intro to these fabulous Manchester United cards from the Topps English football set of 1975/76 sent by Chris of Diamond Cuts and Wax Stains. Obviously they are based on the colorful 1975 Topps baseball design. Even the various color schemes match, at least in the cards I've seen.

These cards came out in the wake of Man U's season of relegation to Division 2 of English football. The club spent one season mired in the lower echelon as they struggled to recover following the end the 'glory days' of Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law.

Of the four players on these cards Brian Kidd is the most accomplished. He currently is an assistant at Manchester City but he made his name in 1968 with a goal he scored at the age of 19 in the European Cup finals win. He spent several years playing here in the U.S. in the North American Soccer League. He later managed for Man U under Alex Ferguson.


These are the first really vintage soccer cards in my collection. Their 'well loved' condition just feels right for cards that were issued in England 45 years ago. They are smaller than what we know as 'standard' cards, closer to the size of Topps '75 minis. If you have any interest at all in 'English Football Cards' at all then this site should be among your bookmarks.


Just great stuff. I love how some of the pics appear to have been snapped as the players were assembled for a team photo. Thanks again Mark. These cards, and your insightful comments, are appreciated.

Certainly not me. But Fuji knew. Fuji knows a lot of stuff including how to buy a box of cards to finish a set he hadn't started. And he sent me these examples out of the 1990/91 set. There was a set issued the following season as well.

All are Manchester United players. That's my team and I make no apologies. One day I hope to make it to Manchester to see a match at Old Trafford. They are certainly struggling this season as they adjust to a new manager. It just doesn't look to be their year.

Man U. is touring here in the States this summer with matches in D.C. and Denver. I'm trying to figure out a way to make it to one of those. I've only seen Man U play live once, here in Houston against the MSL All Stars. I'd love to see them in an EPL setting.

Anyway here are the cards. None of the three players were stars but all had notable careers. Danny Wallace laft the game after it was discovered he suffered from MS. That hasn't slowed his post-career life any.




Mike Phelan came back to coach and manage with Man U under Alex Ferguson in 2008. He was let go when Sir Alex retired.


Thanks for the cards, Fuji. I hope you get the set(s) finished soon.

This is Figo. He is the retired Portuguese  star of international and European soccer. He is arguably the biggest star to come out of Portugal (Rolando might argue that..Ana, what say you?). He is was favorite player and the reason I followed World Cup so closely back when he was active. I have a Portugal/Figo shirt and I love it when someone recognizes the meaning and strikes up a conversation.
He also played for both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona which is like playing for the Yanks and Red Sox multiplied by 1000. Those two clubs were on a collision course in the Champions League but both suffered one-sided losses to the strong German sides and now it appears unlikely that Portugal will have to deal with an title game, fueled by a deep rivalry, that would be..well... interesting. We will know after the semis on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Here is the pertinent data from Figo's Wikipedia page:

Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo, OIH, (born 4 November 1972) is a Portuguese former international footballer. He played as a midfielder for Sporting CP, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and  Internazionale. He retired from football on 31 May 2009. He won 127 caps for the Portuguese national football team, making him the most capped Portuguese player in history. Figo was the 2000 European Footballer of the Year, the 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year, and was named amongst (sic) the FIFA 100.

Here is my favorite line from that page:

When he was born he was a baby and the only son of parents Antonio Caeiro Figo and Maria Joana,

Wikipedia can be a wacky place when you start crossing language barriers.




But as much as I followed Figo and am glad to own a couple of his cards, the real reason to make this entry was to have an excuse to post this picture of Figo's wife, Swedish model Helen Svedin.


You're welcome.