Given that Panini launched their official World Cup sticker album in April, a certain amount of educated guesswork had to go into predicting each competing nations' 23-man squad weeks before the official announcements are made.
While the majority of the rosters are correct, there are always a few players who aren't included in the sticker book despite making it to the tournament -- Rafael Marquez (Mexico), Nabil Fekir (France) and Leander Dendoncker (Belgium) being just a few of the more prominent examples.
Thankfully, the MIFA (Missing In Footy Album) Project was started to help fill in those gaps, with illustrators and graphic artists from around the world challenged to produce stickers for all the extra players not included by Panini.
Outstanding MIFA submissions are arriving in our inbox at a rapid rate. Here are just a few from the last 24 hours.
— Dave Will (@davewi11) June 12, 2018
Check out the series so far at https://t.co/fAc08RDklR pic.twitter.com/xd3yoO5Ryb
All styles -- from doodles to fine art -- are welcome, which has led to some rather wonderful stickers being produced...
Here is my Jorge Campos inspired @RafaMarquezMX submission to the amazing #MIFA project from @davewi11 - it's an outstanding body of illustration work by a whole plethora of great artists so am very pleased to be involved! Good luck to Rafael and #Mexico!! 🇲🇽🏆 pic.twitter.com/3HybIe36Gq
— Phil Galloway (@philthyart) June 10, 2018
Here is my @Mario_Gomez submission to the brilliant #MIFA project from @davewi11 - there has been some amazing artworks submitted so far and I'm really happy to be involved.
— Dave Flanagan (@daveflanagan) June 10, 2018
There are few players left to create, so if you wanted to get involved visit https://t.co/IQFN6FGfJi pic.twitter.com/P5ITvNCVcg
So far, hundreds of colourful, creative sticker designs have been submitted from a wide gamut of artists, with the full squads assembled for your perusal over on the MIFA Project website.
Terrific stuff. The World Cup always seems to bring the best out in people.