| Publisher | Panini |
|---|---|
| Competition | FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 |
| Album pages | 80 |
| Teams | 32 |
| Stickers per packet | 5 |
| Released | 25 August 2022 |
| Sticker size | 49 × 65 mm |
Intro
The last 32-team World Cup album, and one of the most-collected in the series. Panini's 14th World Cup collection launched in late August 2022, a few months ahead of a tournament that had been pushed to November for the first time in its history.
It also broke with tradition on design. Out went the plain white player backgrounds of previous editions; in came a bold blue-pink-purple gradient. The other notable change: players' club sides were dropped from the stickers, an understandable call given the winter scheduling and the transfer window that ran right up against it.
Already working through the 2026 edition? A lot of collectors run both albums side by side.
What's in the album
All 32 qualified nations get a two-page spread with 20 stickers each:
- 1 team photo
- 1 team badge (silver foil)
- 18 player portraits
That accounts for 640 of the checklist. The remainder covers the tournament specials — the FIFA logo, the eight Qatari stadiums (with Al Bayt and Lusail appearing twice, indoor and outdoor), the official match ball, and the introductory pages.
The team-badge stickers are silver foil, and they're the ones that always seem to end up in short supply on the playground.
Variants & specials
US edition parallels. Qatar 2022 was the first World Cup collection where Panini put limited-edition coloured parallels into US packs, applied to the non-foil stickers, running from common blue through to a 1-of-1 black edition.
Gold-bordered base stickers were an online exclusive through Panini's own store, in a limited print run.
Regional editions. Three main structural variants circulated — the standard (blue) edition, the international (orange) edition, and a burgundy "Oryx" edition exclusive to Switzerland. All three share the same checklist, so a Swiss album and a UK album are cross-compatible for swapping, but the covers and some layout details differ.
Extra stickers. As with the 2026 edition, an ultra-rare bonus subset sat outside the main checklist.
About the competition
The 22nd World Cup, held in Qatar from 21 November to 18 December 2022 — the first staged in the northern hemisphere winter, and the last with 32 teams.
The final is widely regarded as the greatest in the tournament's history. Argentina and France drew 3–3 after extra time, with Kylian Mbappé becoming the first player since 1966 to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final. Argentina won 4–2 on penalties, giving Lionel Messi the one trophy that had eluded him and Argentina their third star.
The album has aged well as a result: it captures Messi's crowning tournament, Mbappé at his peak, and early stickers of Jude Bellingham and Pedri.
Swapping notes
This is a retired collection, so there are no new packets coming into circulation — everything in play is what collectors already own. That makes swapping the only realistic route to finishing it, and it makes the silver-foil team badges the hardest part of the job by some distance.
Check which edition you have before agreeing a swap. The sticker numbering is consistent across editions, but if you're chasing a matching set, the parallels and gold borders from the US release won't sit alongside a standard European album. List your missing stickers and doubles by number, and we'll match you with collectors who've got what you need.