Card of the Day - 2024-01-27

Dandy Football Bubble Gum
Dandy [trade : bubble gum : O/S : Denmark] "World Cup Football" / "Italia 90" (1990) Queen of Spades/55 -

Our man is called "Careca" here, but he was actually Antônio de Oliveira Filho, and he played, as the card says, for Brazil. What it does not say is that he played for them in over sixty matches. His nickname of "Careca" was adopted in homage to a famous Brazilian clown, who was bald, and in Portuguese that is the true meaning of the word. 

This was a pretty easy one to set you off with, and a great advert for bubble gum, even if  something more important is missing, for it does not say which brand issued this card, or even worse, which gum to buy to get the rest. There is also no set title, which is why lots of people call it something different - but the most popular seems to be either "World Cup Football" or "Italia 90", the last being because the 1990 World Cup was held in Italy. 

The strangest thing is that Dandy had made World Cup cards before, in a similar style, these being known as "Football Clubs and Colours of the World". They were issued in 1969, and were proudly named "Dandy 7100 Vejle" at the bottom of the reverse.

Then for the Mexico World Cup in 1986, there was a diamond logo in the bottom section of the reverse with four green triangles sticking out behind it, and in the middle of that diamond it says "DANDY".

However for their next issue, Euro 88, the design on the back is just a pair of footballers, a man in a red and white strip with the ball and another in blue and white strip on the floor, not a mention of Dandy.

And our cards too are anonymous. 

Another oddity is that there are 55 cards, but that is explained by the fact that there are actually three jokers, showing Graeme Sharp of Scotland, Ronnie Whelan of The Republic of Ireland, and Roger Ljung of Sweden.

There is a checklist of the cards from this set at The Last Dodo / D90