THE FIRST CHAPTERS
Football rookie cards
Every story has a first card. Discover each player’s first year in our catalogue.
Every card from their first recorded year, across all collections. Filters narrow the results without recalculating that year.
Mbo Mpenza
Belgium · 2000BaseUtkir Yusupov
Uzbekistan · 2026BaseAli Abdi
Tunisia · 2026BasePau Navarro
Villarreal CF · 2025-26BaseLucian Sânmărtean
Romania · 2016BaseEmmanuel Olisadebe
Poland · 2002BaseEldin Jakupovic
Hull City · 2016-17Match Attax 2016/17 - Hull CityJhon Cordova
Colombia · 2026BaseMigjen Basha
Albania · 2016BaseRóger Espinoza
Honduras · 2014BaseDonald Love
Sunderland · 2016-17Match Attax 2016/17 - SunderlandRafael Santos Borre
CA River Plate · 2020BaseMatias Vecino
Uruguay · 2018Team MatesJunnosuke Suzuki
Japan · 2026BaseBranislav Ivanovic
Chelsea · 2010-11BaseDiogo Costa
FC Porto · 2022-23Fc PortoLee Jaesung
South Korea · 2018BaseAlexander Barboza
Botafogo · 2026TitanWes Morgan
Jamaica · 2015BaseKeysher Fuller
Costa Rica · 2022BaseÁdám Bogdán
Hungary · 2016BaseHamdy Fathy
Egypt · 2026BaseFamara Diédhiou
Senegal · 2022BaseHow to find a footballer’s first cards
Find a player and compare their first cards across collections. Filter by publisher, season, team, category and language, view photographs and save the cards you like to your wishlist.
Which cards appear here?
We show individual player cards with a known year. If a player’s first recorded year is 2010, all their 2010 cards and stickers appear, including variants and languages, across the available collections.
Is this the same as an RC logo?
No. Rookie here means the first year recorded in Trading Cards Tracker. We do not certify that this is their first published card or that it carries an official RC logo. Check the edition and its sources for each card.
Can the first year change?
Yes. Adding or correcting an earlier card updates the results. We use the card’s year, not the date it was added to the website or the end of a season. Cards without a year and multi-player cards are excluded from this calculation.
How is each player identified?
We group by the recorded name, normalising accents, spaces and letter case. We do not merge nicknames or different names based on similarity. Aliases and namesakes may need review: check the player, team and collection.