ENGLAND SQUAD 1998

Following on from the huge success of the previous England ranges, Corinthian released 'England Squad Series 3' in November 1997. There was a total of 24 figures released in this series, 12 of which were released as single blister packs, the other 12 as part of a 12 player box set. All the figures were painted into the home kit which the team would wear for the up coming World Cup in 1998.

 

​

The 12 which were in single blister were the 11 that Corinthian felt would be Englands's starting line up, along with manager Hoddle, so the 12 blisters are Seaman, Neville, Campbell, Adams, Le Saux, Ince, McManaman, Le Tissier, Beckham, Gascoigne, Shearer and Hoddle.

 

​

The other 12 were only available as part of the 12 figure team pack, those figures being Walker, Pallister, Adams, Pearce, Hinchcliffe, Anderton, Merson, Redknapp, Fowler, Ferdinand, Sheringham and Wright.

 

​

In addition to those 24 figures, Corinthian released a further 3 figures, one of which was Paul Scholes in the home kit, who was only available as a clear sachet, the reason for this is that he was part of a special promotion by supermarket Sainsburys. The Scholes figures was released in February 1998.

 

​

The other 2 figures were Alan Shearer and Paul Ince, both painted in the Red away kit and only being done as single blisters. Those 2 figures were made available exclusively in Sainsburys and were initially very hard to obtain. Both were released in April 1998. Both had collector cards produced, however at the bottom the collector code was not the usual E number, it was instead the 5 digit card reference number, Shearer having 54369 and Ince 54370, can only assume this was a mix up by the factory.

 

​

5 of the figures which made up this range had never been released in an England shirt before, they are - Beckham, Southgate, Campbell, Hinchcliffe, Merson and the manager Glenn Hoddle. Some were simple repaints of figures released in the Euro 96 kit and others were the new sculpts used for the FAPL Headliners range but painted into the England kit.

 

​

England took a squad of 22 to the World Cup in France, only 15 of the 25 figures released in this series actually made the squad, 9 of the figures Corinthian made were of players who did not end up going to the World Cup and that left 7 players in the squad who did not have a figure released.

 

 

The 9 figures made of players who never went to that World Cup are - Gascoigne, Fowler, Hinchcliffe, Le Tissier, Pallister, Pearce, Redknapp, Walker and Wright. The 7 players who did make the squad, but whom had no figures released in this series are - Batty, Martyn, Lee, Keown, Owen, Flowers and Rio Ferdinand. Due to the selection process it was near impossible for Corinthian to guess which players would end up going to the World Cup, they got 15 right which i feel was good going.

​

​

Each figure came with a collector card and collectors information file.