27 real stars · 4 numbers on every card · 1 album to fill
2026–27
Book 15 · Collect them all⚽ For Saransh — Chief Card Collector ⚽
Messi and Ronaldo. Yamal and Haaland. Queens of the women's game. And two heroes who play for Bengaluru FC. Every card in this book is a real player, and every number on it is TRUE. Tap a card to flip it. Flip it to collect it. Then battle the computer!
Every card has the same four numbers. Learn them, and you can beat anybody at Card Clash, the card battle in Chapter 9.
👆 Tap a card to flip it. Flipped = collected!
How tall, in centimetres. Messi is 170. The tallest star in this book is about 200!
Games for your country. Messi played 208 for Argentina.
Goals for your country, not your club. Messi scored 126.
Only the REALLY big ones. Messi has 20. No other card in this book has more.
Cap
One game for your country's top team = one cap. Ronaldo has 234 caps for Portugal. No man in history has more.
* In America and India, a play-off final decides the champion. So there we count the MLS Cup, the NWSL Championship and the ISL Cup.
Messi has won 47 team trophies in all — the most in football history. If he lifted one every day, it would take him more than six weeks to lift them all. Only 20 of them are BIG enough for his card!
Card collector's secret
Every time a country plays a match, some caps and goals go up. So every card says when it was counted.
Most of our numbers were counted in late September or early October 2026. A few women's and India numbers are older: the oldest Card Clash number is from 19 April 2026. Each golden India Legend card in Chapter 8 says when its own numbers were counted.
Big trophies were counted up to 8 October 2026. Turn to Chapter 9 for the full checklist.
Young. Fast. Fearless. One of them is only about twelve years older than you.
👆 Five cards to collect. Tap!
Barcelona · a charity calendar photoshoot
Baby Lamine Yamal was picked for a charity photoshoot with Barcelona players. A 20-year-old called Lionel Messi gave him a bath. Really!
Nineteen years later, in July 2026, the two met again: in the World Cup final. Yamal's Spain won 1–0.
Barcelona 5–1 Feyenoord · 9 September 2026
Barça's captain Raphinha handed Yamal the armband. At 19 years and 58 days, he became Barcelona's youngest captain ever.
What did he do? Scored a free kick. Set up two goals. Some captains just shout. This one delivers.
"Yamal is the youngest World Cup winner ever." Not true. Pelé was 17 when he won it in 1958. Yamal's record is different: at 19 years and 6 days he became the youngest to win the World Cup AND the Euros.
"Cold Palmer." Cole Palmer is so calm taking penalties that people gave him that nickname. In October 2025 he got the nickname registered, like a brand name. Now it's officially his!
🧮 Quick maths! Yamal is 19. If you are 7, how many years older is he?
Give them half a chance and — BANG! — the ball is in the net.
👆 Four goal machines. Flip them all!
England 6–4 France · third-place match · 18 July 2026
France lost that game. But Kylian Mbappé scored twice — and reached 22 World Cup goals. That's the most in men's World Cup history, one more than Messi's 21.
He won the Golden Boot — the prize for the top scorer — with 10 goals. He's the first player ever to win it at TWO World Cups.
His famous arms-folded celebration? He copied it from his little brother Ethan. Ethan did it every time he beat Kylian at a football video game!
Norway 12–0 Honduras · Under-20 World Cup · 2019
Most teams don't score nine goals in a month. Erling Haaland scored nine in one match.
At his first World Cup, in 2026, he scored 7 goals. He scored both goals as little Norway beat five-time champions Brazil 2–1, and took them to their first-ever World Cup quarter-final.
Surprise! Norway's hero was born in Leeds, England. His dad was playing for Leeds United at the time.
Bayern 7–0 Union Berlin · 18 September 2026
Harry Kane plays in Germany's top league, the Bundesliga. He reached 100 goals there in just 98 games. The old record took 129 games. He is England's top scorer ever, with 91 goals.
People used to joke that Kane never wins trophies. Old news! He won the Bundesliga in 2025 and again in 2026 — plus the German Cup, with a hat-trick in the final.
Funniest moment: in 2014 his goalkeeper was sent off with no subs left, so Kane went in goal. A free kick slipped through his hands. Goal for the other team! Strikers, stick to striking.
"El Toro" knocked England out. Lautaro Martínez's nickname means "The Bull" — he charges at defenders and never gives up. In the 2026 World Cup semi-final he scored the stoppage-time winner against England. Argentina 2–1.
🤔 Who has more goals for their country: Bunny Shaw or Erling Haaland?
Some players beat you with speed. These ones beat you with tricks, passes and big brains.
👆 Six magic cards. Tap to flip!
2026 World Cup · Golden Ball
Spain's captain Rodri was voted the best player at the 2026 World Cup. Goals: zero. Assists (passes that set up a goal): zero. So how?
He passed. And passed. And passed. 747 of his 799 passes found a teammate — more than anyone else. He also ran further than anyone: about 96 km in eight games. That's more than TWO marathons!
Spain won the World Cup. Passing is a superpower too.
Careful! The World Cup's Golden Ball is NOT the Ballon d'Or. Rodri has won both: the Ballon d'Or in 2024, the Golden Ball in 2026. In August 2026 he moved from Man City to Barcelona.
After 257 goals for Liverpool, Mo Salah moved to Trabzonspor in Turkey. On 19 September 2026 he scored a hat-trick against Galatasaray, who were top of the league. Twice he ran all the way from his own half to score!
Bukayo Saka scored a World Cup hat-trick against France in July 2026. Only three England players had done it before. Arsenal is the only professional club he has ever played for.
Most players have one strong foot. PSG's official website says Ousmane Dembélé's foot is "both". He won the 2025 Ballon d'Or. In the 2026 Champions League final against Arsenal, he scored PSG's equaliser from the penalty spot.
Kevin De Bruyne once set up 20 Premier League goals in one season, equalling the record. Now he plays for Napoli in Italy.
Assist
The pass that sets up a goal. The scorer gets the cheers. The assist-maker gets a hug.
Vinícius Júnior joined a famous five. At the 2026 World Cup he scored in all three group games. Only four Brazilians had done that before: Jairzinho, Romário, Ronaldo and Rivaldo. He has also scored in two Champions League finals.
Most people kick with their right. But lots of the best attackers are lefties! Guess each player's stronger foot.
Score: 0 of 8
Strikers score the goals. These giants STOP them.
👆 Four giants. Collect them!
Courtois is about as tall as a door. He's 30 cm taller than Messi — about the length of a school ruler!
England & Chelsea goalkeeper · born 2000
Hannah was born with a squint: her eyes didn't point the same way. She had three eye operations before she was three. Her eyes still find it very hard to judge how far away things are. Doctors even said sport could never be her job.
She trained differently. And she became the best goalkeeper in the world: in 2025 she won the first-ever women's Yashin Trophy.
Twist: she started out as a striker, in Villarreal's academy in Spain. In the Euro 2025 final she saved penalties from Mariona Caldentey and Aitana Bonmatí. England won.
A goalkeeper headed the winner! West Brom v Liverpool, 2021, stoppage time. Alisson ran up for a corner and headed it in. Liverpool 2–1. In the club's 129-year history, no Liverpool keeper had ever scored before.
📏 Try this! Stand against a door. Ask a grown-up to mark your height in pencil. Now look up at the top of the door. That's Courtois!
Most footballers stop in their thirties. These two just keep going… and going… and going.
👆 The two rarest cards. Flip!
Argentina 3–0 Benin · Buenos Aires · 6 October 2026
In August 2026 Lionel Messi said he was stopping playing for Argentina. He played one last game, in front of about 85,000 fans.
He set up the first goal. He set up the second. Then he scored the third from the penalty spot. Two assists and a goal. That's how you say goodbye!
That was game number 208 and goal number 126 — both Argentina records. At the 2026 World Cup, aged 39, he was voted the second-best player AND was the second-top scorer.
"Messi has retired." Not true! He only stopped playing for Argentina. He still plays for Inter Miami in America, and helped them win their first MLS Cup in 2025.
Portugal 5–0 Uzbekistan · Houston · 23 June 2026
Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in that game. That made him the first player ever to score at six different World Cups: 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2026.
Messi played at six World Cups too, but didn't score in 2010. So only Ronaldo has done it.
He has 146 goals for Portugal — more than any man in history. And he has won league titles in FOUR countries: England, Spain, Italy and Saudi Arabia. He's 41!
Found: 0 of 20
Kolkata built a giant Messi. When Messi visited India in December 2025, a 70-foot statue of him holding the World Cup went up in Lake Town, Kolkata. That's about as tall as a six-storey building! In June 2026 it had to come down — it was swaying in the wind.
Luka Modrić, 41 · AC Milan 🇭🇷 — When Luka was six, his family had to leave home because of a war. He played football in a hotel car park. He grew up to win the 2018 Ballon d'Or. At the 2026 World Cup he won his 200th cap. Aged 40, he became the oldest player ever to set up a World Cup goal.
Neymar, 34 · Santos 🇧🇷 — Back at Santos, the club where he started as a boy. He is Brazil's top scorer ever, with 80 goals — more than Pelé's official 77. His last game for Brazil was at the 2026 World Cup. He scored a penalty.
Robert Lewandowski, 38 · Chicago Fire 🇵🇱 — In 2015 he came on at half-time and scored five goals in 8 minutes 59 seconds. That's a Guinness World Record. You can't even eat your lunch that fast!
Record-breakers. A hurdler. A backflipper. And a girl who was the only one among about 400 boys.
👆 Five queens to collect. Tap!
More goals than games! Khadija "Bunny" Shaw had scored 66 goals in 48 games for Jamaica by April 2026. Why "Bunny"? As a little girl she loved carrots! She's also been the top scorer in England's Women's Super League three seasons running.
Spain & Barcelona · midfielder
At seven, Aitana joined a club called CD Ribes. She was the only girl among about 400 boys. She didn't let that stop her.
She's only 162 cm — even shorter than Messi (170)! But she spins away from big defenders. She won the Ballon d'Or Féminin in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Nobody had ever won it three times.
Then, in November 2025, she broke a bone in her leg in training. She came back in April 2026. Later she said: "It's the first serious injury I have had. Now I know what it's about and I am learning to have patience."
Champions come back slowly and carefully. Because of the injury she isn't on the 2026 Ballon d'Or list. Her Spain numbers weren't up to date when we checked, so she gets this page instead of a card.
Sam Kerr 🇦🇺 has scored 75 goals for Australia (by mid-2026) — more than any Australian, man OR woman. She is the only woman to win the Golden Boot in three leagues on three continents. Her celebration? A backflip!
Marta 🇧🇷 was the world's best player SIX times. She learned football in the street with the boys. At 39 she came back for Brazil and scored twice in the 2025 Copa América final. Her 17 goals are still the women's World Cup record.
Alexia Putellas 🇪🇸 has two Ballons d'Or and had played 147 times for Spain by June 2026, a record. In 2026 she moved to London City Lionesses, and they made her captain.
Ewa Pajor 🇵🇱 grew up on a farm in Poland. She lost FIVE Champions League finals. In 2026 she played her sixth — and scored twice. Barcelona won 4–0. Never give up!
Caroline Graham Hansen 🇳🇴 played competitive chess between the ages of six and eight. Maybe that's why she always seems to know the next move.
Chloe Kelly 🏴 loves a big moment. She scored the extra-time winner in the Euro 2022 final, and the winning penalty in the Euro 2025 final against Spain.
Before football, I jumped hurdles for Spain. I've won THREE different World Cups.
My big brother plays for Chelsea and England. So do I!
I scored with my HEEL, through the goalkeeper's legs, in a Euro semi-final.
My dad was a famous basketball player. I chose football and won Olympic gold.
You don't have to look in Europe for legends. Two of them play for Bengaluru FC — right here in your city.
👆 Golden India Legends. Tap to flip!
India Legend cards are extra special. Each one shows its own numbers, so they don't play Card Clash. They live right here in Chapter 8, not in the album. Chhangte's card (the fifth one) DOES play Card Clash: flip it to put him in your album!
Bengaluru FC · since 2013
In June 2024 Sunil Chhetri said goodbye to the India team. He had 94 goals. Then, in March 2025, India's coach asked him to help. He came back, aged 40 — and scored goal number 95 against the Maldives in Shillong.
In November 2025 he said goodbye to India for good. But not to Bengaluru FC! He has played 318 games for BFC and scored 134 goals — both club records. He has said: "Bengaluru FC has been home for me from the very first day I walked into this club."
With BFC he has won 7 major trophies: 2 I-League titles, 2 Federation Cups, the ISL, the Super Cup and the Durand Cup.
Mohali → Norway → Bengaluru
As a boy, Gurpreet's coaches thought he looked less comfortable running around the pitch. So they put him in goal. Good call! Today he's nearly 2 metres tall and captain of India.
In 2016 he joined Stabæk in Norway. That made him the first Indian to play in a top European league! He's also the only Indian ever to play in the Europa League.
By May 2026 he had kept 29 clean sheets for India. (A clean sheet = a game where you let in zero goals.) No other Indian keeper has more than 20.
In 2022, playing for a club in Cyprus, Manisha became the first Indian — man OR woman — to play in the Champions League. A year later she scored in it. She has played football on three continents. Her dream: "My next goal is to see my country compete in the FIFA World Cup."
In 2020 Bala Devi signed for Rangers in Scotland. She was one of the first Indian women to be paid to play football in another country. That December she became the first Indian woman to score in a professional league in Europe. She has scored about 50 goals for India. At the 2014 South Asian championship she scored 16 goals in just 5 games!
Lallianzuala Chhangte is only 166 cm — the shortest player in Card Clash — but nobody can catch him. He was India's Player of the Year in 2022-23 and 2023-24, and won the ISL Shield and the ISL Cup with Mumbai City. In 2026 he moved to Mohun Bagan SG.
Ferran Torres scored the World Cup winner — and he once played a final in Kolkata! In 2017 India hosted the Under-17 World Cup. Spain's Ferran scored in Kochi and Navi Mumbai. Then he played the final at Kolkata's Salt Lake Stadium, in front of 66,684 fans. Spain lost 5–2 to England. Nine years later, Ferran scored the only goal of the 2026 World Cup final.
Bonus: he was born on 29 February. That date only comes once every four years, so he's only had six real birthdays!
🔎 Chhetri has 95 goals for India. One man still playing for his country is just ONE goal behind him. Who?
Challenge the computer with real numbers. Then check your album: every card you flipped is waiting here!
Secret tip: the BIGGEST number isn't always the BEST one! Every Height is between 166 and 200, so 178 cm is just middling. But 9 big trophies beats nearly everybody. Read the cheat sheet first!
Missing some? Each question mark tells you which chapter to look in. Flip a card anywhere in the book and it lands here.
The Ballon d'Or is the prize for the best player of the year. The 2026 one is handed out on 26 October 2026 in London — the 70th time ever. When this book was made, nobody knew the winner! These Card Clash stars are on the men's list of 30. Who gets your vote?
Same night, same city. From this book, these five are on the women's list of 30. (Aitana Bonmatí isn't — she was injured.)
Last year's winners: Ousmane Dembélé and Aitana Bonmatí. Your pick is saved on this device. Come back after 26 October and see if you were right!
All figures are from the book's checked fact pack (club and federation sites, FIFA, Wikipedia and Transfermarkt, each fact re-checked by a second researcher). Heights use the club's own figure (for example Yamal 178, though Transfermarkt says 183). For Ronaldo (185–187) and Courtois (199–201), where official figures disagree, we use the middle: 186 and 200. Big trophies = top-league titles (MLS Cup / NWSL Championship / ISL Cup where a play-off final crowns the champion) + Champions League + senior World Cup + Euros / Copa América / Africa Cup of Nations / Asian Cup, counted to 8 October 2026.
| Card | Height | Caps · goals (counted) | Big trophies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamine Yamal | 178 | 37 · 11 (7 Oct 2026) | 5 = 3 La Liga, World Cup 2026, Euro 2024 |
| Désiré Doué | 181 | 19 · 4 (5 Oct) | 4 = 2 Ligue 1, 2 Champions League |
| Pedri | 174 | 53 · 6 (7 Oct) | 5 = 3 La Liga, World Cup 2026, Euro 2024 |
| Jude Bellingham | 186 | 60 · 14 (7 Oct) | 2 = La Liga 2023-24, Champions League 2024 |
| Cole Palmer | 185 | 14 · 2 (8 Oct) | 2 = Premier League 2022-23, Champions League 2023 |
| Erling Haaland | 195 | 59 · 65 (4 Oct) | 4 = Austrian league 2018-19, 2 Premier League, Champions League 2023 |
| Kylian Mbappé | 178 | 107 · 67 (25 Sep) | 8 = 7 Ligue 1, World Cup 2018 |
| Harry Kane | 188 | 125 · 91 (6 Oct) | 2 = 2 Bundesliga |
| Lautaro Martínez | 174 | 86 · 42 (3 Oct; Transfermarkt 87 caps) | 6 = 3 Serie A, World Cup 2022, 2 Copa América |
| Vinícius Júnior | 176 | 57 · 14 (4 Oct) | 5 = 3 La Liga, 2 Champions League |
| Mohamed Salah | 175 | 122 · 68 (Wikipedia, 25 Sep; Transfermarkt 120 · 66) | 5 = 2 Swiss league, 2 Premier League, Champions League 2019 |
| Bukayo Saka | 178 | 59 · 19 (3 Oct) | 1 = Premier League 2025-26 |
| Ousmane Dembélé | 178 | 71 · 13 (5 Oct) | 9 = 3 La Liga, 3 Ligue 1, 2 Champions League, World Cup 2018 |
| Rodri | 190 | 74 · 5 (7 Oct) | 7 = 4 Premier League, Champions League 2023, World Cup 2026, Euro 2024 |
| Kevin De Bruyne | 181 | 127 · 40 (2 Oct) | 8 = 6 Premier League, Belgian league 2010-11, Champions League 2023 |
| Virgil van Dijk | 195 | 100 · 14 (4 Oct) | 5 = 2 Premier League, 2 Scottish league, Champions League 2019 |
| Thibaut Courtois | ≈200 | 115 · 0 (6–8 Oct) | 9 = 4 La Liga, 2 Premier League, Belgian league 2010-11, 2 Champions League |
| Alisson Becker | 193 | 83 · 0 (8 Oct) | 4 = 2 Premier League, Champions League 2019, Copa América 2019 |
| Gianluigi Donnarumma | 196 | 87 · 0 (6 Oct) | 6 = 4 Ligue 1, Champions League 2025, Euro 2020 |
| Lionel Messi | 170 | 208 · 126 (final, 6 Oct) | 20 = 10 La Liga, 2 Ligue 1, MLS Cup 2025, 4 Champions League, World Cup 2022, 2 Copa América |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | ≈186 | 234 · 146 (24 Sep) | 14 = 8 league titles (England 3, Spain 2, Italy 2, Saudi Arabia 1), 5 Champions League, Euro 2016 |
| Lauren James | 167 | 40 · 9 (9 Jun 2026) | 5 = 4 WSL, Euro 2025 |
| Alessia Russo | 175 | 67 · 30 (Sep 2026) | 3 = Euro 2022, Euro 2025, Women's Champions League 2025 |
| Trinity Rodman | 173 | 57 · 13 (9 Jun 2026) | 1 = NWSL Championship 2021 |
| Salma Paralluelo | 174 | 51 · 15 (9 Jun 2026) | 8 = 4 Liga F, 3 Women's Champions League, World Cup 2023 |
| Khadija Shaw | 182 | 48 · 66 (19 Apr 2026) | 1 = WSL 2025-26 |
| Lallianzuala Chhangte | 166 | 55 · 9 (9 Jun 2026) | 1 = ISL Cup 2023-24 |
Not in Card Clash because one of the four numbers could not be confirmed: Sunil Chhetri (height), Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (exact current caps), Manisha Kalyan and Bala Devi (full trophy lists; Bala Devi's height), Aitana Bonmatí (current caps), and Pau Cubarsí, Unai Simón, Ferran Torres, Alexia Putellas, Sam Kerr, Marta, Ewa Pajor, Neymar, Robert Lewandowski and Luka Modrić (full trophy lists or exact caps). They appear in the chapters with only their checked facts.
Ten questions. Every answer is somewhere in this book. Get them all and you're a Ballon d'Or Collector!