Our first clue card gave us Italy, which is universally regarded as the home of pizza - and we can also credit the Italians with taking pizza to America with them when they emigrated.
That`s not all, though, as the early Romans, who were named after Rome, Italy, used to make a flat bread called panis focacius (and yes, that is the origin of foccaccia bread), and pile it with toppings.
Then we also have the fact that the first use of the word "pizza" was in Gaeta, which today is a seaside holiday resort, but, in Roman times, was a heavily fortified city.
Lastly, even the word "pizza" harks back to the Roman word "pinsere", to pound, or stamp, referring to the way the dough is thrown and then pounded down with the hands and fingers.
Our man is Claudio Gentile, and he was born on September 27, 1953. The card then tells us that he was born in Tripoli, Libya, but a little bit of research proves that in 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War, Tripoli was occupied by the Italian forces, and that they somehow held control right until 1943, even changing its name to Italian Libya. However our man was not even born for another decade after that, which makes me think his parents, or grandparents, must have been Italian, and he got in the Italian team through that. And in actual fact it turns out that his parents were Sicilian.
When he was eight, they moved to France, and this is where he first played football, for a club I cannot find called Arona. Then, in the early 1970s, he was snapped up by the Società Sportiva Dilettantistica Varese Calcio, in Lombardy. However a little bit of research into this club tells us a lot, for it was primarily staffed and run by Italians, so it seems likely that a lot of Italians were living in the area. And it was, to all intents and purposes, an Italian team. Sadly the turnstiles squeaked for the last time in 2019, and the club is no more.
In 1973 he moved to Juventus, and relocated to Turin. He played over four hundred games with Juventus, including UEFA Cup and European Cup Winners Cup finals, and also joined the Italian National Team, with whom he competed in the several World Cups and European Championships.
About the time this card was issued, in 1984, he signed for Associazione Calcio Firenze Fiorentina, in Florence, then moved to Piacenza, in Emilia-Romagna, and it was whilst he was playing there that he retired from football in 1988. However he did not step away entirely, just side-stepped into coaching, for the Italian Under-21s, and the Olympic squad for the 2004 Games in Athens.
This card was supplied us by a reader, who also poses a question, and that is regarding the title of the set - for if you look at the large heading at the top of the cards, they read "Rothmans Football International Stars", with a line between the words "Rothmans" and "Football", and so one might presume Rothmans to be the issuer and the set to be called "Football International Stars". However, if you look down the bottom it actually says "Printed in the U.K. by Rothmans Football, London, England" and that seems to suggest that the set ought to just be called "International Stars".
Anyway, whilst you ponder on that, here is a list of all fifty cards :
- Manuel Amoros (France)
- Giancarlo Antognoni (Italy)
- Ossie Ardiles (Argentina)
- Batista (Brazil)
- Franz Beckenbauer (West Germany)
- George Best (Northern Ireland)
- Maxime Bossis (France)
- Paul Breitner (West Germany)
- Trevor Brooking (England)
- Cerezo (Brazil)
- Bruno Conti (Italy)
- Johan Cruyff (Holland)
- Ramon Diaz (Argentina)
- Dirceu (Brazil)
- Eder (Brazil)
- Falcao (Brazil)
- Ubaldo Matildo Fillol (Argentina)
- Trevor Francis (England)
- Claudio Gentile (Italy)
- Alain Giresse (France)
- Ancesco Graziani (Italy)
- Glenn Hoddle (England)
- Junior (Brazil)
- Manfred Kaltz (West Germany)
- Kevin Keegan (England)
- Mario Kempes (Argentina)
- Pierre Littbarski (West Germany)
- Diego Maradona (Argentina)
- Bobby Moore (England)
- Hansi Muller (West Germany)
- Daniel Passarella (Argentina)
- Pele (Brazil)
- Michel Platini (France)
- Bryan Robson (England)
- Dominique Rocheteau (France)
- Paolo Rossi (Italy)
- Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (West Germany)
- Harald 'Toni' Schumacher (West Germany)
- Bernd Schuster (West Germany)
- Peter Shilton (England)
- Didier Six (France)
- Socrates (Brazil)
- Uli Stielike (West Germany)
- Alberto Tarantini (Argentina)
- Marco Tardelli (Italy)
- Marius Tresor (France)
- Ray Wilkins (England)
- Tony Woodcock (England)
- Zico (Brazil)
- Dino Zoff (Italy)
As the set was issued in 1984 it does not appear in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, only in the updated version. That tells us that Rothmans actually had three distinctly separate card-issuing eras, firstly between 1925 and 1940, which are detailed in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, then an issue in the 1950s and 1960s called "Rare Banknotes Collection", which is one of the few sets of cigarette cards devoted to banknotes, and which we talk of in more length in our newsletter of the 26th of February 2022 (scroll down to Saturday, 26th February). Our set is part of the third incarnation, which is recorded as "Issues in 1970s and 80s", and they are :
- Canterbury Bankstown District Rugly League Football Club
- Consulate Country Living cards
- Puzzle Card Series
- Rothmans African Educational Series
plus our set, which is described as :
- ROTHMANS FOOTBALL INTERNATIONAL STARS. Sm. 75 x 45. Unnd (50) See H.638 ... R785-780