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.
Mathis Amougou
RC Strasbourg Alsace · 2025-26Veterans And RookiesYūto Nagatomo
Japan · 2010BaseOleh Husyev
Ukraine · 2006BaseDerk Boerrigter
AFC Ajax · 2011-12BaseTeboho Mokoena
South Africa · 2026BaseFlorian Klein
Austria · 2016BaseCheddira
RCD Espanyol · 2024-25BaseJoe Bell
New Zealand · 2026BaseJavi Llabrés
RCD Mallorca · 2022-23BaseMorteza Pouraliganji
Iran · 2018Team MatesKwak Tae-Hwi
South Korea · 2014BaseIsak Hien
Sweden · 2026ContendersFederico Dimarco
FC Internazionale Milano · 2022-23Away KitTeboho Mokoena
South Africa · 2026BaseJastin
Girona FC · 2024-25Master RookieTom Cleverley
Manchester United · 2012-13BaseHancko
Atlético de Madrid · 2025-26BaseTheo Janssen
FC Twente · 2010-11BaseAhmed Hegazi
West Bromwich Albion · 2017-18BaseMarcelo – Captain
Real Madrid · 2021-22BaseLuca Ranieri
ACF Fiorentina · 2025-26Match Attax 2025/26Kasey Palmer
Huddersfield Town · 2017-18BaseSteven Bryce
Costa Rica · 2002BaseHow 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.