Hobby Musings: Jason Flynn of Soccer Cards United Breaks Down Soccer Market – The soccer market gets lost in the shuffle of the trading card world sometimes. With its global reach and popular players, it’s still a segment of the hobby that can feel unfamiliar to many collectors. To find out more about the current state of it, I had the chance to catch up with Soccer Cards United co-founder and co-host Jason Flynn.
KS: It’s been a little bit since we talked. As we stand today, what is the state of the soccer hobby?
JF: The soccer hobby is ticking along nicely, growing all the time. We continue to battle it out with hockey to be the hobby’s fourth sport in terms of number of cards graded and volume of high-end sales, but we have the advantage of being the world’s most popular sport, so it won’t be long until that question is answered definitively. Especially with a World Cup to be hosted in the USA, Canada and Mexico next year in 2026.
KS: Who’s the overall top-collected player in men’s and women’s soccer right now?
JF: For the past 12 months. Lionel Messi had been establishing himself as the number one name in soccer collecting bar none. Many high-end collectors have been coming in from American sports and buying up all the high-grade Messi rookies or ultra-premium Messi stuff they could get their hands on. However, this has taken Messi prices up far enough to where those same big-money collectors are starting to look for more value. In turn, they have been driven into the arms of Cristiano Ronaldo, whose market is starting to show signs of once again closing the gap to Messi’s in the medium term.
In the women’s game, I would say that the Barcelona and Spain duo of Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati are still out in front as the top-collected players in the women’s game, certainly in Europe. However, have a Women’s European Championship this summer, and Arsenal just beat Barcelona in the Champions League Final, so maybe that Barca-Spain axis could be disrupted and the market along with it.
KS: That being said, which player do you think has gained the most in hobby popularity in men’s and women’s soccer over the past year?
JF: Definitely Lamine Yamal on the men’s side. The kid is an incredible player, some say the best in the world at still only 17. His EURO 2024 victory with Spain cemented him as a different caliber of rookie, and everyone has wanted a piece since, whether it be a $100,000 superfractor or a $100 patch card.
On the women’s side I’ll give a collective answer and that would be the current generation of top USWNT players. Emma Hayes took over that team to try and get them out of the transitionary period they had been in and back to the success they’ve always had. Key to the project is the “Triple Espresso” of Sophia Wilson (Smith on her rookie cards), Trinity Rodman, and Mallory Swanson (Pugh on her rookie cards). They won the Olympic gold last year in Paris, and they’re not stopping there. All eyes on 2027 and taking that World Cup trophy back from Spain.
KS: Since we talked at the National, what do you think has been the biggest change in the soccer market?
JF: I think the soccer hobby is in the public eye now in a way it hasn’t been before. The number of breakers with a large following breaking soccer, the amount of publicity/marketing that’s being put into the UCC license and soon the Premier League license by Fanatics/Topps, the amount of soccer you’re seeing at card shows; soccer has moved into the limelight.
KS: What do you think is the biggest challenge when it comes to soccer card collecting right now?
JF: We don’t have a draft and therefore we don’t have a reliable hype cycle for new rookies coming through. 2024-25 is a perfect example of a year where nobody is quite sure what rookie we should be chasing, and manufacturers have added to the confusion by refusing to respect a couple of the top rookies already having clear-cut RCs in 2023-24. Obviously, a weak rookie class can happen and does happen in other sports, but we are particularly vulnerable to it in soccer because of the way players are introduced to the sport.
KS: As far as European collecting goes, have you noticed any changes there in trends or preferences so far in 2025?
JF: The number of card shows, and the size of the top card shows in Europe, keeps increasing. We’re starting to see American collectors come to Dublin, London, or Paris for card show vacations in a way they hadn’t done en masse before. European collectors are growing more confident in themselves and in each other, and relying less and less on the American market for guidance or for capital.
KS: It feels like card shows become more plentiful and popular in Europe each year. Is the growth of the London Card Show a good barometer for the growth of the hobby in Europe overall?JF: What the London Card Show has done is unique in the European hobby, they’re on their 20th show! In saying that, I do think you can correlate the London Card Show’s growth and the European hobby’s growth pretty closely. When you look at their move to the Excel London for their “XL show” in April 2026 you can see that growth. To put the size of that venue in terms your US readers will appreciate, it has 5500 parking spaces. What Harry and the team at the LCS have done has given others, including our team at the Dublin Card Show, the confidence and the experience to know that when it comes to European card shows, if you build it, they will come.
KS: What is your bold prediction for the soccer trading card world, and the European market, for the rest of 2025?
JF: My bold prediction for the soccer card world in 2025… we will finally leave hockey in the dust! For the European market… I think the NFL market in Europe is going to hit another level with regular season games to be played in Dublin, Madrid, Berlin, and London in the upcoming season.
KS: What do you have going on for Soccer Cards United in the near future?
>JF: We’ve launched a new catch-all brand, Atlantic Collectibles, which at the time of writing is running breaks, but there are even bigger things to come for that brand in 2025. I can’t say too much more than that at this stage!
Oh, and I should say we continue to host the world’s greatest soccer card podcast, which you can listen to or watch wherever you get your podcasts.
Hobby Musings: Jason Flynn of Soccer Cards United Breaks Down Soccer Market
Kelsey’s ability to bring hobby coverage to the mainstream sports fan has been a true asset. GTS is happy to feature his thoughts on collecting in Hobby Musings. The opinions expressed are his and do not necessarily reflect those of GTS Distribution.
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