I was brought up in the Shoot Out cards world, so I approached the new Match Attax world with a degree of scepticism as a young collector. But did I have a reason to be pessimistic about it?
Let’s start with the former, if I may. I mean, I did write a full feature here as a Love Letter to Shoot Out Cards, but maybe nostalgia is ruling my head with that one. It just felt simple, clean and clear – even at such a young age, And now with Match Attax coming along it was, naturally going to be an adjustment.
Magic Box International’s Premier League cards had become a playground staple, combining player collecting with ratings and special cards featuring the biggest names in English football. Then, after the 2006/07 season, Shoot Out disappeared.
In its place came something that would dominate British football card collecting for the next generation. Match Attax.
Before Match Attax, There Was Shoot Out
Magic Box launched its Premier League Shoot Out collections in 2003/04 and continued producing them for four seasons. The final 2006/07 collection contained 360 main cards – 18 for each Premier League club – alongside a further 72-card player update set. For collectors of a certain age, these cards are instantly recognisable.
The 2006/07 set included Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard alongside special categories including Penalty Specialist, Excellent Player and Match Winner cards.
I distinctly remember getting a Ruud van Nistelrooy match winner for the 2005/06 collection in a Clarks shoe store in Bullring shopping centre before school started. And I absolutely screamed the place down – mum wasn’t too pleased! Almost as good as when I pulled the Diego Forlan from the original set – who was also in my personal collection (‘PC’).
Yes, I have a weird PC – but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? While we’re on it, here’s an article I wrote remembering Diego Forlan’s awesome turnaround at Villarreal after that faulty United start. Walk down memory lane and have a look, if you fancy!
Shoot Out had already established the basic formula: buy packets, fill the binder, swap your duplicates and desperately try to acquire the shiny version of your favourite player.
Then the Premier League licence changed hands. Forever.
Why Did Shoot Out End?
The 2006/07 collection became Magic Box’s final Premier League Shoot Out release.
Topps acquired the Premier League trading-card rights and, for the 2007/08 season, introduced Match Attax as the league’s new official trading card game. The start of things to come as they gradually took over football licensing worldwide.
Match Attax didn’t suddenly convince British children to collect football cards. Shoot Out, Merlin, Panini and plenty of others had already done that. What Topps did was take an existing habit and package it brilliantly.
Hence why they’re as big as they are today – and continue to grow!
The First Premier League Match Attax Cards in 2007
The first Premier League Match Attax collection covered the 2007/08 season, with hundreds of cards representing all 20 clubs.But this time, with a more gamified element – because it was a game you could actually play.
Every standard player had an Attack and Defence rating, allowing the cards to function as an actual game rather than simply something to put in a binder.
So instead of doing what I did and fight to the hilt on which Shoot Out player was better when both were rated 3 stars or more, at least here we had a quantifiable angle when creating your starting XI’s
And a few select limited edition cards changed that completely, as well.
Man of the Match and Hundred Club Cards
Topps also understood that certain cards needed to feel special.
The inaugural collection contained regular players alongside Star Players and Man of the Match cards, creating obvious targets beyond simply completing each team’s page. Then there was the big one.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Hundred Club. And Man of the Match. And Limited Edition. He had a fair few…
The concept was wonderfully simple: an elite card carrying a maximum 100 rating. Pulling one immediately felt different from finding another ordinary base card, particularly when everybody around you understood exactly what the number meant.
No population reports required. No grading company required. Although guides on such can be found here.
You pulled a Hundred Club in the playground and everybody wanted to see it. Or steal it – in my case! I did grow up in Handsworth, Birmingham in the early 2000’s after all, so maybe it’s my own fault.
How Match Attax Started a New Era of Football Card Collecting
The scale eventually became enormous.
Topps says Match Attax developed into the world’s best-selling sports trading card game, expanding beyond its original Premier League format into competitions including the Champions League, Europa League and Bundesliga.
That success also helped establish the template for modern mass-market football card games.
Cards weren’t merely pictures of footballers anymore. They had ratings, rarity tiers, special designs, limited editions and increasingly desirable chase cards. Later collections would expand those ideas considerably, while competitors such as Panini’s Adrenalyn XL developed their own versions of the formula.
Today’s football card hobby is obviously far broader. Autographs, relics, numbered parallels, hobby boxes and grading have introduced an entirely different collecting language.
But for a generation of British collectors, the gateway was much simpler. A binder. A few packets.
And an argument about whether somebody’s Cristiano Ronaldo Hundred Club was worth your entire stack of swaps.