3 Forgotten Premier League Players with Cool Rookie Stickers

If you’re anything like me, and you spend a large chunk of your free time searching for ‘unknown’ or forgotten Premier League players from your lifetime and before, then I have a feeling you’re going to enjoy flicking through these list of unassuming rookie stickers – which are suddenly becoming valuable in this burgeoning football collectibles market.

What makes ‘Forgotten Premier League Players’ so desirable?

Well, we want to look at players with a wide catchment area.

In other words, they can’t just be forgotten by you.

As time goes by, we develop affiliations with new players, new partnerships and perhaps even entirely new squads, but there are still going to be those that stay close to home.

The ones you remember watching when you were a kid, the ones you broke your back to try and collect from your friends in the playground, or perhaps even the ones that brought a stupidly wide grin to your face when you pack them for yourself – like what young fans today would feel about these.

Those are the types of emotions you want to elicit in potential customers if you’re looking to make money, or most certainly in yourself if you’re open to spending it.

Better still, a lot of these guys will have what we call ‘rookie stickers’, that are worth far more to you and the wider collectors’ market if you’re able to dig a little deeper.

So, let’s get into this list!

Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea → Dynamo Kyiv)

I get really annoyed when people brand Shevchenko a ‘flop’.

Truth be told, this is a transfer which shouldn’t have happened anyway.

Thankfully, fans of AC Milan in particular will be quick to mention just how prolific the one-track-minded Ukrainian was in his prime years on the European stage.

Not only is he heralded for his performances on an international level with Ukraine, but he’s also a multiple Champions League winner, a regular at the peak of Serie A competition, a Ballon D’Or winner and a beloved public figure in the media.

Especially for his presence during Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.

Nevertheless, there will still be those who remember him only for a tough few seasons at Chelsea, where a mix of managerial instability and boardroom forcefulness rendered him the fall guy for an inflated price tag that would never match with his impending impact.

In truth, most probably don’t remember that he was in England; hence why he makes this ‘forgotten Premier League players’ list, and thankfully his legacy speaks for itself.

Not least a 6-year developmental period at home with Dynamo Kyiv, before soaring to new heights and returning home for a last-minute renaissance ten years later.

So, cards or stickers from his return are more common.

But looking for those earlier stickers (as cards were less prominent for that league at the time) could result in a healthy return, though they’re getting rarer by the day.

HOBBY FC RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | PRICE RANGE: £50-100

Patrick Kluivert (Newcastle → Ajax)

On the face of it, Kluivert isn’t just among forgotten Premier League players.

He may also be a part of the ‘peaked too early’ club, depending on how you think.

In truth, it’s almost impossible to replicate the level of success players like Patrick Kluivert have been able to achieve well before the Premier League even came into view.

Before he could even make sense of what the game was really about, he was thrusted into the tip of Louis van Gaal’s precocious AFC Ajax Christmas tree, which were hell-bent on seeing whether or not an unlikely European Cup run was possible.

Spoiler alert: it was, and this Ajax team got completely picked apart.

If you thought that famous squad assembled by Erik Ten Hag suffered a transactional battering, they must count their lucky stars to not be in the same league as van Gaal’s.

Edgar Davids, Edwin van Der Sar, Marc Overmarks and Clarence Seedorf were all victims of Ajax’s success before they venture for pastures new in Central Europe. Kluivert was no different – who went to AC Milan after scoring the winner in the UEFA Champions League Final against them in 1995. And on a Bosman move too – ouch!

Though things didn’t quite work for him in Milan, he enjoyed a modicum of success at Barcelona before chancing his arm with a tough season in 2004/05 with Newcastle.

He did well, but not brilliantly – much like his entire career since leaving Ajax.

Hence why commemorations of that time as a youngster have become so precious to the memory of Patrick Kluivert, whilst the story-telling aspect of being a premature European champion looks good in the description of assets bearing his name.

HOBBY FC RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | PRICE RANGE: £20-50

Ricardo Quaresma (Chelsea → Sporting Lisbon)

This is easily one of football’s most irritating ‘what if’ stories.

Because the world deserved more than what we got from Ricardo Quaresma.

Born out of the famous Sporting Lisbon academy, it was suggested that Quaresma was the logical heir to the great Luis Figo as he realised his own potential as an initial hero-cum-enemy with Barcelona, before becoming a Galactico with Real Madrid.

Initially, it looked as though things would work out for Quaresma, and that he may even move to England before becoming one of the forgotten Premier League players.

But alas, he is here – and with good reason.

Most will say it’s because of his attitude and lack of work ethic.

Sure, he might not have had as much of a fall from grace compared to the likes of Fabio Paim (who apparently trumped both him and Cristiano in the Lisbon ranks as a teenager), but his forthcoming move to Barcelona didn’t really go as planned.

So, while I would love to say that his eventual relocation to Chelsea was a realisation of his quality, it was one of many ‘second chances’ that never came to fruition.

He’s arguably the ‘best’ of all the forgotten Premier League players on this list, before he’s still instantly recognisable on the European front (and has a lot of admirers further afield), and only stayed in London on loan before running back with his tail between his legs.

That being said, he enjoyed a number of very successful stints with Besiktas in the Turkish first division, and on the international front with Portugal – especially at Euro 2018.

He’s got the fans, the story is there and the value matches with all of that.

Quaresma was a pretty handsome devil too – which is never a bad thing for collectors!

An easy pick-up if you can find good-quality versions of his junior Sporting Lisbon card, and a must-have for collectors specialising in rookie stickers.

HOBBY FC RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | PRICE RANGE: £90-150

Summary

All in all, these stickers are key to any football fan’s collection.

Each of them speak to an era where it was all about ‘how well will they do’, and ‘will they realise their potential’. Then, it matches those questions with the answer.

Such that potential buyers might look at these and instantly associate their rookie appearance with a memory they have of them, or it might switch on their melancholic switch in their brain where they want to remember the best version of that player.

After all, not many people are just going to generally search for ‘forgotten Premier League players’ on Google or any other search engine for that matter, without feeling some kind of way about them.

Similar to how a lot of music collectors continue to purchase vintage albums of their favourite singer during their favourite part of their lives.

Football stickers aren’t much different, and going for those with an affiliation to the English Premier League is always a good base when it comes to sourcing potential new buyers if you’re into the reselling market. Otherwise, use these same parameters and focus on a team or league that means more to you than the one in Britain. And enjoy!

Which of these forgotten Premier League players gets you in the feels the most?