Just over a week ago, the World Cup began with a new format, arguably the most demanding of all. The final phase of the tournament has more teams than ever – it has gone from 32 to 48 selections – more matches – from 64 to 104 in total – and a new record for geographical extension encompassing the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with the long travel that this entails for national teams. Before the first inaugural match, however, another competition – equally demanding this year – was taking place all over the world: completing the Panini World Cup sticker album.

Some boys leave the newsstand with a few envelopes in their hands. They sit on a bench, tear them open carefully, and take out a handful of new trading cards. In front of them is the album, still full of empty spaces to complete. For more than half a century, scenes like this have been repeated in schoolyards, dining rooms, and squares all over the world. Behind it all is Panini, the Italian company that managed to turn simple pieces of adhesive paper into a great machine of desire, nostalgia, and consumption. Today, sixty-five years after its founding in Modena in 1961, the company continues to be a giant in the world of collecting: it invoices around 1.6 billion euros every year, sells its products in 150 countries, and employs 1,200 people.