Are Soccer Cards As Lame As I Think They Are?

This is a baseball card blog - except on those few occasions during which we've discussed some hockey cards. Now I'm going to expand the conversation just a little, and perhaps only once, to ask you: are soccer cards really as lame as I think they are? Let me explain why I pose the question.

I happen to be not merely a rabid San Francisco Giants fan, but in recent years I've expanded my casual regard for the beautiful game of soccer into a frothing fandom that has had me watching 700% more soccer/football than I do even baseball. Not just the World Cup every 4 years, as I've done for decades now, but games spread throughout the week in the English Premier League, the Championship, the Bundesliga, Champions/Europa League, the MLS, world friendlies, the NWSL - you name it. A few years ago, thanks to their strong pipeline of American players (Clint Dempsey, Brian McBride and Tim Ream, to name a few), I somewhat randomly chose Fulham to be my English club of choice - even got to see them play in London the year before last.

Despite watching every game of theirs during the last two years - even via wonky pay-per-view, laptop-only, one-time-purchase streams, often watched on delay on an iPad before bed - I never really even thought once about collecting Fulham cards. It truly never even crossed my mind - until it did, and I wondered, "Are there actually cool-looking soccer/football cards that aren't made for 7-year-olds and that have interesting designs that are comparable to those found in my beloved baseball card hobby? Cards that don't have power boosts, names like "Match Attax", doofus player ratings and other trappings designed for the schoolboy, as opposed to cards designed for a refined middle-ager like myself?".

I'm still wondering. I bought the 2018-19 Topps Chrome series of Fulham cards, 5 in all, and as you can see with the Calum Chambers card above, that's about as good as it gets. It looks very much like Topps 2020 baseball Series 1, one of my least-favorite sets of all time. I ask you: is there such thing as a "Heritage" set for soccer cards? Anything?

Honestly, it's such a phenomenal sport, but because it's relatively new in the USA, the average age of the US-based soccer fan is somewhere in their 20s. Baseball? We average out in our 50s. We fiftysomething baseball fans have loads of memories, some disposable income and plenty of navel-gazing contemplation time for our cards. I don't see the US soccer demographic coming from the same place - but perhaps that's a terrific marketing opportunity for someone, am I right?

Anyway - if there are really beautiful, collectable, affordable soccer cards from the last decade or two, I'd love to know about them....! Until then, I'm going to assume that we're still in very early days when it comes to soccer cards worth accumulating.