Panini changes up soccer player sticker album

(ANSA) - Milan, January 9 - The new 2016-2017 Panini Serie A soccer player sticker album, awaited each year by collectors and now in its 56th edition, has hit Italian newsstands and has some new features in store.
    The 128-page album, with a street-art inspired cover, is a new size (24.5 cm x 33.5 cm).
    It also has larger 5.4 cm x 7.6 cm stickers this year, in order to contain more information than in the past, including players birthplaces, preferred foot, and stars to indicate players on the Italian national team.
    A new section contains caricatures of 11 players drawn by collectors, as well as five stickers with front pages from the sport newspaper 'La Gazzetta dello Sport' dedicated to Buffon, Higuain, Maldini, Totti, and Zanetti.
    "In this edition there are innovations to meet the demands of a new generation of collectors, while respecting the tradition of which we are proud as well," said Antonio Allegra, Panini Italy market director.
    As for the photos, former Milan player Billy Costacurta said that sometimes players would "get mad when we weren't told in advance that the sticker photographer was coming".
    "It happened a lot during the first few days of training, when we were exhausted," he said.
    "I suffered the first two or three years, when I had hair like George Michael".