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.
Siaka Tiéné
Côte d’Ivoire · 2006BaseBen Godfrey
Everton · 2020-21BaseVahid Hashemian
Iran · 2006BaseEmmanuel Eboué
Côte d’Ivoire · 2006BaseChristian Bolaños
Costa Rica · 2006BaseJakob Poulsen
Denmark · 2010BaseAchille Emana
Cameroon · 2010BaseAchille Webo
Cameroon · 2010BaseJohn Pantsil
Ghana · 2010BaseNikola Žigić
Serbia · 2006BaseMoussa Marega
FC Porto · 2018-19CornerstonesAntonio Rukavina
Serbia · 2010BaseAndré Ayew
Ghana · 2010BaseNejc Pečnik
Slovenia · 2010BaseChaouki Ben Saada
Tunisia · 2006BaseValter Birsa
Slovenia · 2010BaseDijon Kameri
FC Salzburg · 2022-23BaseArchie Thompson
Australia · 2006BaseValon Behrami
Switzerland · 2006BaseReinier Jesus
Borussia Dortmund · 2020-21BaseGojko Kačar
Serbia · 2010BaseSaša Ilić
Serbia · 2006BaseDominic Adiyiah
Ghana · 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.