1975-76 Topps UK Footballer Cards Revisited

Given that this is the year that Topps Heritage revisits the 1975 Topps Baseball design I thought it would be fun to re-share my modest collection of 1975-76 Topps UK English/Scottish Footballer (Soccer) cards, all of which I’ve featured on this blog before, just never at the same time.

A little history behind this set… Starting in the late 1950s a company called A&BC issued Footballer cards which often were similar in design to Topps designs in other sports. A&BC licensed the designs from Topps and the cards themselves were often smaller than what we consider to be standard-sized.  In 1975 A&BC went out of business and Topps started to issue Footballer cards in the UK.  The first set they issued featured standard-sized cards which used the famous 1975 Topps Baseball design.  As with A&BC before them, there were two sets issued;  one featuring footballers from the top-tiers of English Football (220 cards), and another smaller set featuring those from Scottish Football (88 cards).

I first discovered these at a mall show in 2009 and I bought four just as a fun oddball.  I soon came to regret not buying more, but at the time I had no idea of how much I’d enjoy them.  These days I seldom run across them and there’s not a single card from this set on COMC right now. (Update: After publishing this I realized that COMC *does* have cards from this set, but unlike other similar sets they’re not in their system as “footballers”)

As you can see, the front of the card is almost the same as their Baseball counterpart, with a soccer ball and player replacing the baseball in the lower right corner.

Norwich City, also known as the “Canaries”, has the unfortunate distinction of having been relegated out of the Premier League six times, the most of any team.  They currently in the 2nd tier Championship and had a shot at being promoted again this year but didn’t quite make it.

As you can see, the backs of the cards are completely different from 1975 Baseball.

In a rare occurrence within my modest soccer collection, I’ve got a second card from the same team. If you’re as fanatical about 1975 Topps Baseball as I am, you’ll notice that the color combination here is one that didn’t occur in 75T.

I believe that this is my most recent acquistion from this set, having picked it up in late 2016.

Birmingham City FC was founded in 1875, but just got relegated down to the 3rd tier of English football.  Bob Hatton played in 617 games from 1964 to 1984.

Leicester City won the FA Cup in 2021, got relegated last year – just the second time in Premier League history that a former champion got relegated – but will be back in the EPL for the 2024/25 season.

Graham Cross is the Leicester City record holder for most appearances with the team (according to Wikipedia)

That’s it for the English Footballer cards.  The remaining four are from the Scottish Footballer set.

Heart of Midlothian F.C., commonly known as “Hearts”, is based out of Edinburgh and plays in the Scottish Premiership, the top level of Scottish football.

As you can see, the backs are the same design but with blue ink instead of red.

Here’s another red/purple card.  Dundee United is obviously based out of Dundee and was relegated to the 2nd tier after the 2022-23 season.

And now for something completely different, a purple/red border.  Partick Thistle is a team based out of northern Glasgow and currently plays in the 2nd tier.

Dundee and Dundee United passed each other like ships in the night;  Dundee was promoted to the Scottish Premiership at the same time that Dundee United was relegated.

And that wraps things up.  As you can tell from my writeup I know almost nothing about the players, I just love the cardboard.