Bye Bye Cisse :(

He's retired from Football this week :(

Here is Cisse's 2001/02 French Base Set Foil card with Auxerre.  It is a good card except the tackle rating of 5 hurts his playability.  However, the card below turns Djibril into a superstar.

This card just evolved into Djibril Charizard.  And Wizards finally spelled his name right. 

Thanks for the memories Cisse, I'll do my best to recreate them in Football Champions land.

2001/2002 French Promo of Ronaldinho with PSG.

FINISHED: 2001/02 English Base Set

Well after 7 years I have completed my first set of Football Champions.  I'm very happy to finally have collected a set of soccer cards that have been available for over 10+ years and most likely will sit on my shelf to collect dust.  But I did finally defeat my procrastination habits having only needed 14 foils to finish the set, a number which had stayed the same for the last 6 years.

Below are three of the cards that helped finish my set:

Does such a person exist?

I've been trying to collect Football Champions since around 2007. I played the game in a hotel in Upstate New York against 3 total strangers whom I had just met for the first time in my life. Might Ipswich Town v Spurs. I of course was Ipswich and won on a headed goal by Mark Venus. From that point on I needed some of these cards.

That is where the downfall began. I started to collect these cards. It is now six years after this expensive decision was made and I still feel no closer than I did in 2007. I find out about cards I didn't know existed every few months. But that just makes the chase even greater.

My goal like any collector was to have all of the cards ever printed and to acquire them as soon as possible. I don't know why I have this tendency to get everything as fast as possible. Naturally I blame my american upbringing for that.

I then wondered if anyone out there has every Football Champions card ever made. I've seen some people have impressive cards but I really wonder if anyone has achieved the feat of owning every card. So if you come across this place and do, post a comment.

Andriy

This is one of the best forwards in any 2001-2002 Football Champions set. Having two 10's as pace and shot make Sheva hard to beat up front. Andriy's play at Euro 2012 was special to watch. He played fantastic for the Ukrainians and scored 2 in the opening game. Big shame he left Milan for Chelsea though.

French Promo Cards

A few months ago I made a fairly large trade with a good friend (Hi Alexandre!). We both had played MLB Showdown many years ago and he was having nostalgia come over him. Knowing I have wayyy more Showdown cards than anyone needs at this point in their life we decided to make a nice swap.

I received quite a large lot of Football Champions cards. Most of which were French cards along with some French scarves (Montpellier, Auxere, St. Etienne) and the beginning of my 2004/2005 Italian Sets. The most important part of the trade was acquiring French Promos.

Below are the cards I received:

Jesper

I don't really know why I enjoy Jesper Gronkjaer, but I do. I would always transfer him to whatever club I was managing in FIFA. Maybe I had an affinity for Danish players? More than likely I really just enjoyed his name.

His football champions card however is pretty pedestrian. At 116 points he isn't the most cost effective player. Sure his shot is an 8 but really that's about it. Star power should be higher, at least a 10.

Adidas Promos

I've not updated in quite some time (par for the course I guess). However I've acquired quite a few new Football Champions cards.

As you (does anyone read this?) may have guessed by the title I finally it my Adidas Italian Promos. I post in the group for Football Champions on Facebook and was linked to them off eBay. In a nice drunken haze I purchased both Trezeguet and Del Piero without even looking at the prices. $40 and two weeks later I had my cards. Honestly I'm not the biggest Trez fan, however the Del Piero is the sexiest card ever. Now they currently sit in a binder which I look through once a month, maybe. Worthy purchase....of course!
___________________________

On another note, I've found two places that people actively trade for Football Champions cards. The first is a soccer card board:

http://s13.zetaboards.com/Football_Cards/topic/6847508/1/

The second is a group on Facebook simply titled "Football Champions". The group page's main image is the 2001-2002 Italian starter set. The only issue for the group is its entirely in Italian. However it's 2012 and with translators all over the place, it's a bit easier to try and trade.

I'll post more this time now that my phone can blog.

RIP

You left this world too soon.

team Selection

I've never really put together a team in Football Champions. Honestly, I have no idea where I'd start. Actually, scratch that, I would get a solid core up the middle. Give me me a top drawer centre back, midfielder, and a killer forward.

I figure this would be the place to go over any ideas/team formations I'd have when building a team. All the potential strategies and players to pick from will give more interaction between myself and....uhhh yeah, myself.

However, someone I know from prior sport card games (sup MLB Showdown) wrote a great piece on his website. It's worth the read, I promise.

Click here to read.

David

Monsieur Ginola.

2001/2002 English Rules

As the title of this post says, below is a link to the rules for the first year of English Football Champions Rules. Any questions, post a comment or shoot me an email.

2001/2002 English Rules.

Guiseppe

Why have only one, when you can have 8?

(Which is as nearly as many cards as he had goals in the '99/2000 season)

Savo

Partizan Legend.

Not Dead.

When I decided nearly 6 years ago to purchase some English Football Champions cards. Really, all I wanted was Spurs cards. I then found out the game was made in two other countries. My "must collect every card" phase turned on instantly. I started collecting and made a small dent in nearly every countries card sets. Later come to find each country had promotional cards...which I still am not sure how many are out there.

Fast forward to 2011, and I'm basically in the same place I've been for the last 3 years. Unable to find a place to purchase French and Italian cards (that will ship to United States). I check usually every few days for new stores that will ship/Ebay sellers in Italy that will ship to United States all to no avail.

And finally, I receive an email about a Zizou listing that will ship to United States. Not only that but the seller has a few other cards I'm very interested in. Much appreciated for the email tip!

If you come across this blog and have any cards or are interested in acquiring some cards, email me or post a comment. Chances are, if you post a comment I won't get to it for awhile, email might be the best route.

Zizou...

I do not believe that Football Champions really produced a Zidane card. And not just card, cards. Supposedly there are two of them. I've luckily came across a box of French Pour Le Titre a few years back and busted it hoping I'd get Zizou. No luck. Speaking of no luck, I waited awhile to purchase a bunch of French Base cards from one of the French sites and now they are all gone.

Constantly searching all Ebay sites for Zidane over the last 3 years hasn't helped the cause. I don't expect to ever find Zidane. In fact, I don't even know what either card looks like.

If you happen to read this blog, or come across it somehow, please post a photo of the card. It could be 10 years from now if you come across this, still post the photo or email me. I'd appreciate it.

Until then, Zidane's card(s) do not exist to me.

Italia....

The above picture is of the lovely country Italy. One day I hope to travel to your beautiful country and catch plenty of Football in Turin, Florence, Milan (NOT INTER), and Rome. That and purchase EVERY FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS CARD I FIND. While this little map pictured above is pretty outdated (Eastern Europe) that is not the matter at hand. My issue is with of course their exports. Let's start with what Italy is known for.

Italy is famous for .pizza, wine, fashion, chapels and the Vatican, and last but not least Football Champions.

All of those items have been greatly exported and shared throughout the world, except for Football Champions. Look, I know America isn't a soccer nation. Trying to collect a card game that has been dead for nearly 5 years is a bit maddening. However, when Ebay Italy has plenty of sellers who offering good products it is nice to see. BUT, none of them want to ship internationally. It is so frustrating to see all these cards I'd love to have but not be able to purchase them due to ONLY SHIPPING WITHIN YOUR STUPID BOOT SHAPED COUNTRY. Seriously, is it really that hard to charge 10-20 Euros for International Shipping???

All I want is to get the complete YOGA Italy National Team Set, BOTH Del Piero Adidas Promos, and the Juventus Ibrahimovic. Come on Italy, help a guy out.

Update

This blog isn't dead. I haven't had time to check out anymore Football Champions items. Nothing new has been up on any of the Ebay websites (UK, Italy, France).

I was able to find out that card-game club would be willing to ship items to the United States, however in very limited quantities. Reason being the shop owner doesn't want to pay shipping. I don't think I really understand what they meant, usually the one buying the items pays shipping costs.

Also, there has been two people to contact me about trading...so if you are looking for cards, put up a comment on here or send me an email.

Football Champions Complete Spoiler

This is for the 2001-2002 seasons. All countries are included. All work is done by user J.L Robert (Football Champions expert). Go here to download the file:

Click.

A couple of notes about the spreadsheet:

ITBS- Italian Base Set

ITCM- Italian Calciomercato

ENBS- English Base Set

ENTR- English Title Race

FRBS- French Base Set

FRPT- French Pour Le Titre

The point breakdown is the most interesting topic, I believe. I hope to ask J.L. how he figured out the points as I'm very impressed by his work.

The Search for Football Champions, Part 2!

Everything else:

Outside of Ebay, there aren't too many options to find Football Champions on the net. The best bet for an American is to go to each country's Google and search in their pages (under the search bar you can change options).

England:

psi-soft.co.uk

You can buy every 2001-2002 Base set card. The rares are a bit over priced for my liking, but if you really want that Paul Ince for £3.98, then be my guest.

France:

UltraJeux.com

Starters and boosters from the Base set here. The boosters drop in price when you pick up 24 or more (1 Euro to .75 Euro). Shipping makes up half the overall purchase cost though.

Italy:

lppcollecting.it

The most interesting website. Usually when reading Italian, I can understand the main points, however here, I'm totally lost. I don't know if the website has the product I want to purchase. Prices are a bit steep here, and with my lack of understanding of the website, I dare not even try to find out shipping cost. I'll cover this website in a later blog post.

cardgame-club.it

My personal favorite. They have everything and it's real cheap. Other than insane shipping, this is the best website in the world for Football Champions. Only one problem, they (or the person running this website) does not ship to America. In an email with them at the start of 2008, they said to check back in a few months because their website will have changed and shipping to America will happen. I checked back, website didn't change, still no shipping to America. I don't know if they just don't ever intended to ship to America, but the moment they do, cardgame-club will get a nice sum of my bank account.

I guess it's time to send cardgame-club.it another email.

And this is where my search ends. I have never been able to find more resources on the internet for this game. If you stumble across this blog and have another website with FC, I'll post it. Or, if you have cards and want to try and make a deal, I'd be interested in that.