The love story between football and supermarkets A trip down memory lane to rediscover highly romantic collections

The relationship between football and supermarkets represents a decades-long union between two seemingly distant worlds that have managed to become complementary. Limited edition collections of items launched by major food brands and supermarket chains themselves, which intensify around major national team competitions like the World Cup and the Euros. Every two years, you can find pieces of memorabilia that today hold a strong nostalgic appeal, but not only — some have even found their place in the collectors’ market.

Esselunga’s shooters and footballs

For the 2014 World Cup held in Brazil, Esselunga launched the Emozioni Mondiali collection. Two items were involved, with differing levels of success. The less fortunate was the so-called "giocollezione" of shooters: rigid paper discs, 4 centimeters in diameter, to be used in a game similar to Subbuteo. Nearly a hundred different shooters, varying by player roles, actions, fans, and balls. An album was included to store them, along with board games Goal Master and Il Goleador to use them in. Delivered in packs of 3 mini discs each, perhaps the real draw was the sticker inside used to win footballs.

This was in fact the winning move: offering four commemorative adidas footballs from four different World Cup editions. After reaching a certain spending threshold, customers could receive the Jabulani from South Africa 2010, the Teamgeist from Germany 2006, the Fevernova from Korea-Japan 2002, or the Tango from Spain ’82; all customized in the colors of the winning national teams. The iconic status of these rare items is undisputed, as is the impact they had that summer.

Carrefour’s metallic discs

A true promoter of World Cup collections was undoubtedly Carrefour, with an unforgettable item. The French supermarket chain offered, for South Africa 2010, Italian National Team discs, part of the Album Azzurri series. Unlike those later released by Esselunga, these were metallic and purely for collecting, with no specific use. Also earned through a points-based shopping system, there were 35 total discs with elegant graphics, featuring all players from the disastrous World Cup campaign, as well as past world champion Azzurri squads.

The collection had a Panini sticker effect, with online forums for swapping duplicates and a buzz of excitement during school breaks across Italy. Today, these albums — or even the rarest individual discs — have gained decent market value and are sold on various marketplaces, further emphasizing what they meant.

Coca-Cola’s football cans

Moving away from initiatives specifically launched by supermarkets, we come to those promoted by the various brands found on shelves. These collections had a global reach, as they involved multinational food and beverage giants. In this respect, the company with the longest and most effective collaboration with football is Coca-Cola. One might call it a trailblazer, a pioneer in believing in tailored promotional lines for the world’s most popular sport. Everyone has held one of the commemorative cans of the American soft drink. The first were even launched between the late '80s and early '90s, especially in South America and Europe, featuring the host nation's colors and the World Cup logo. They later produced a can for every participating team, before exploding in popularity in the 2000s, with limited editions for various competitions, specific clubs, and football legends.

Today, the most dedicated collectors can find cans from USA ’94, Euro 2004, and some Copa América editions, all the way to the legendary 18 cans of the 2002/03 Bundesliga. For fans of Hansa Rostock or 1860 Munich — teams long gone from Germany’s top division — these cans are real treasures. Unsurprisingly, even the Premier League has had its custom cans in recent seasons and will have them again for the 2025/26 season. In short, Coca-Cola’s football-themed marketing instinct is already the subject of study — its catalog spans forty years and keeps growing.

Kinder & Ferrero: toys, pins, and stickers

In the world of collectibles, Kinder & Ferrero couldn’t ignore football — and vice versa. A natural and inevitable mutual exchange, where the Alba-based giant embraces the sport most played by children. Among the myriad of toys found inside the world’s most famous chocolate egg, the Kinder Surprise, football-themed ones were included in 2006 and 2008. The series launched by Ferrero was called Magic Sport — and it couldn’t have been more successful: the toys perfectly captured the blend between football and the charm of animal characters made especially for this Kinder line. The cute little animals wore generic, colorful jerseys and stood on a magnetic base to attract a ball. Also included in the egg packs were paper goalposts and a playing field, along with gadgets from the Italian national team. It was such a hit that a new collection was released in 2008, with new characters. Not stopping there, Ferrero even produced promotional mid-length films on VHS and DVD, where the little animals came to life in a cartoon series, Magic Sport, and a movie, Magic Sport 2. The attention to detail in this football-themed series is unlikely to ever be matched.

Alongside the Kinder collection for children, one cannot forget the link between football and Ferrero’s most famous product, Nutella. It began between 1998 and 2000 with a clothing line in partnership with the Champions League: Nutella Team items ranged from duffel bags to rain jackets, football boots to two-tone tracksuits. As for national teams, in 2000, pins showing the Azzurri logos through history were included with jars, and in 2001, magnets featuring shirts from famous national teams. That same year, in collaboration with Bolaffi, stamps were released celebrating Italy’s major victories; then came the Panini Azzurro Mondiale albums with round stickers. Finally, for Germany 2006, in addition to the usual glasses featuring national team players, an exclusive football-shaped jar with 850 grams of product was released — themed around Italy. Unbeatable.

Also worthy of mention are the Actimel magnets featuring Italy’s 2010 World Cup players, produced by Danone in partnership with the FIGC. Each magnet, shaped like a probiotic yogurt bottle, featured a different player and naturally ended up on fridges across Italian homes. This is just a fraction of the football-themed items that passed through supermarket aisles and checkouts, entered homes of multiple generations of children (and not only), and now form part of the world of collecting and personal memory albums.