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.
Walter Baseggio
Belgium · 2002BaseLarsson
FC Barcelona · 2004-05BaseIlaix Moriba
Valencia CF · 2021-22BaseCANÓS
Valencia CF · 2023-24BaseDe La Torre
RC Celta · 2022-23BaseALBERTO MARI
Valencia CF · 2023-24BaseGavi
FC Barcelona · 2021-222021-22 Topps Chrome Uefa Champions LeagueNaohiro Takahara
Japan · 2002BaseSwedberg
RC Celta · 2022-23BaseOussama El Azzouzi
Union Saint-Gilloise · 2022-23Base CardsKromkamp
Villarreal CF · 2005-06BaseGhislain Konan
Côte d’Ivoire · 2026BaseIvailo Petkov
Bulgaria · 2004BasePak Chol-Jin
North Korea · 2010BaseAlexis Guendouz
Algeria · 2026BaseAdlène Guedioura
Algeria · 2014BasePak Nam-Chol
North Korea · 2010BaseZdravko Zdravkov
Bulgaria · 2004BaseKonstantinos Karetsas
KRC Genk · 2025-26Veterans And RookiesAn Yong-Hak
North Korea · 2010BaseAndreas Jakobsson
Sweden · 2004BaseQuentin Ndjantou
Paris Saint-Germain · 2025-26WonderkidsNam Song-Chol
North Korea · 2010BaseHow 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.