As Topps and Panini continue pumping out new soccer NFT sets, its important to chronicle these releases. As we’ve seen in physical cards, firsts matter, and blockchain technology leaves no ambiguity when it comes to when these assets were minted (i.e. created on blockchain). We’ll eventually turn this into it’s own page so we can continue adding to the timeline, but for now…. here you go. – EPL out

• August 2021 – @ToppsNFTs drops the first ever licensed soccer NFT set, known as 20/21 Bundesliga Celebration or “s0”, this set is comprised of static images with animated laser etches and video highlights with play calls reserved for the highest rarities. Although originally overestimating demand, producing 25,000 premium packs (25 NFTs/pack) and 50,000 standard packs (5 NFTs/pack), Topps made a great late call by removing unsold packs from the shop, with a plan to burn them in the future. The result? Bundesliga Celebration only minted out 43% of the total drop making these NFTs much rarer than they initially appear. So who is available in this OG NFT set from ToppsNFTs? Glad you asked. Haaland, Lewandowski, Musiala, Wirtz, Diaby, Nkunku, Kimmich, Sancho, Davies, Adams, Reyna, Muller, Neuer and more… Checklist here

• November 2021 – @ToppsNFTs drops its second ever soccer NFT set, known as Bundesliga Series 1, in an entirely new format. With Haaland headlining just a 10 player checklist, there’s a lot to like about this drop. the square player thumbnails are quite unique, with rare tier and higher giving way to a video highlight with announcer play call. While the Celebration (s0) set only offered videos for it’s highest tier, S1 has dropped that threshold all the way down to rare tier and above. Chases in this set include Haaland, Sane, & Schick. Checklist here

• February 2022 – @PaniniAmerica enters the fray… While having dabbled in Dutch auction 1/1 physical/NFT pairs for a few years already, Panini waits until 2022 to drop it’s first soccer league NFT set – 2021-2022 Panini Foot FR Sticker NFT’s for French Ligue 1. Note: This drop was not licensed by the French League 1, but by the French League players union. Hence no team names etc. A bit of an odd choice to go with stickers although it does pay homage to their European roots so I can understand the decision. The checklist is big (Panini loves a big checklist) but still contains some notable first NFT appearances such as Messi, Mbappe, & Neymar. Checklist here

• March 2022 – @ToppsNFTs drops its second release of the 21-22 season with Bundesliga Series 2. Matching the format of its s1 drop, this 10 player checklist is loaded. Bellingham, Wirtz, Szobo, Burkardt… Checklist here

• May 2022 – @PaniniAmerica finally gets to market with the 21-22 Mosaic La Liga NFT set. Lots of big name first appearances in this drop including Pedri, Joao Felix, Suarez, Griezmann, Fati, de Jong, Balde, Gavi, Ezzalzouli, Valverde, Modric, Benzema, Casemiro, Camavinga, Vinicius Jr, Pino and more. This also happens to be the first times we get to really compare the products (Topps/Panini) side by side in terms of drop format, paralells, nft style as Topps continues with it’s 21-22 Bundesliga releases with the drop of Series 3. Checklist here (La Liga) and Checklist here (Bunds S3)

• June 2022 – @ToppsNFTs releases two soccer drops in the month of June. The first, Scottish Premiership Football League NFTs, with the second being its fourth and final set of the 21-22 Bundesliga season in Series 4. A much larger set than the rest of the Bundesliga series, there were rumors Topps ran out of time and combined three drops into this one which makes sense when you see this checklist is 52 NFT’s large, compared to 10 and 15 in previous drops from the set. Additionally, and despite the community’s wishes, Topps included a 2nd appearance of Haaland in this drop via a new “Club Phenoms” insert. Chases in this set include Haaland, Lewandowski, Nkunku, & Diaby. The only current chase (unless you’re an SPFL stan) in the SPFL drop is Calvin Ramsey, the young RB recently purchased from Aberdeen by Liverpool. Checklist here (Bunds S4) and Checklist here (SPFL)

• October 2022 – @ToppsNFTs releases it’s “Inaugural” Kickoff series Bundesliga drop for the 22/23 season. With an usually large checklist, higher mints, an absence of videos, and some down right lazy designs this is easily the worst soccer product Topps has pushed to market. This is reflected in both pack sales (less than 20% minted) and secondary activity (or lack thereof). Checklist here

• November 2022 – @PaniniAmerica releases Mosaic Road to FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. As the first ever licensed drop in international kits, we believe this set will age well over time. More than a year after Topps dropped it’s first Bundesliga set, this is a still a first NFT appearance for tons of stars, including most of the Premier League as we have yet to see a drop for the Prem (license TBD) or UEFA Champions League (Topps owns this license).  Panini Mosaic Checklist here