Portsmouth Man Tracks Down Sticker Album Footballers

20 November 2013, 08:14

A Portsmouth man who had six stickers missing from his 1990s' football album has tracked down the players so he could complete the book.

Adam Carroll-Smith discovered the 1996 Merlin Premier League sticker album in his attic and decided to search for the players after he opened it to find six empty spaces, when he believed he had completed the collection as a child.

The 29-year-old from Southsea managed to track the players down and they agreed to have their photographs taken to fill in the gaps.

The Portsmouth FC fan said:

"They were all fantastic, really accommodating guys.''

The missing stickers were Gary Penrice of QPR, Lars Bohinen of Blackburn Rovers, Keith Curle of Manchester City, Philippe Albert of Newcastle, Scott Minto of Chelsea and Stuart Ripley of Blackburn Rovers.

Mr Carroll-Smith, who now works as a solicitor, said that when he had completed his task, which he has written a book called Six Stickers about, he decided to throw the album into the sea.

He said: 

"It was a cathartic experience. My wife and I have just had our first child, so this was a symbolic way of showing I'd grown up.

"The sticker album was then and this is now.''