Couple creates unofficial World Cup book using silly soccer stickers

By Izzy Hawksworth via SWNS

An artistic couple have created a hilarious DIY football sticker book in time for this year's World Cup featuring caricatures of some of the game's most famous players.

Alex, 39, and Sian Pratchett, 38, began drawing players for the 2014 World Cup album because they could not justify the cost of filling it with official stickers.

Over the years, they have drawn more stickers celebrating different football tournaments and have gained thousands of followers on social media.

And now the pair have released a book about the history of football where they have drawn different iconic moments in football history since the World Cup started in 1930.

The $11 book features different historical moments, such as Geoff Hurst's hat trick at the World Cup in 1966 - the only time anyone has scored a hat trick in the final match of the tournament.

Alex has described writing a book as 'the most colossal sense of imposter syndrome' but has said 'it's lovely and I'm delighted that it's a thing.'

He said: “Having a book is like the most colossal sense of imposter syndrome you could ever imagine.

“My friend sent me a photo of the book on the shelf in Waterstones and it’s surrounded by other football books by actual authors.

"I just think how on earth has this happened?

“It’s lovely and I’m delighted that it’s a thing but I keep waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and say what do you think you’re playing at?”

The married dad-of-two has said that although the drawings have got better over the years, that’s only because they’ve ‘got better pens.’

But now it only takes the pair around ten to 20 minutes to draw a player.

Alex, from Oxford, Oxfordshire,. said: “We’ve drawn around 13,000 to 14,000 footballers between us and they might have improved slightly but all I would say is that we’ve got better pens.

“We’ve invested in a couple of nice pens and a couple of nice pencils which makes a big difference.

“I don’t think the actual underlying talent is in anyway better than it was in 2014 but it’s just using better pens and having a slightly nicer presentation.”

The couple have had fans that have followed them since they started posting the drawings on social media in 2014.

Alex has said that these fans are 'sorta in disbelief' and keep asking 'how we've managed to fall upwards into having a book.'

He said: “They are sorta in disbelief, they are asking how we’ve managed to fall upwards into having a book.

“People have been really nice but I’m never really sure to what extent our followers are humouring us."

“There’s been a lot of people who have been on the ride with us since we started and I think they’ve enjoyed us blossoming from amateurish beginnings to amateurish present day."

“But it’s been really nice, and there are lots of nice people in our little corner of football Twitter who have supported us from the get-go.

“But I can only apologize that they’ve spent eight years being assaulted by our drawings.”

Alex has also jokingly said that he 'wouldn't recommend that anyone buys our book' but he 'apologizes in advance' if someone is gifted a copy.

He said: “I wouldn’t recommend that anyone buys our book and I wouldn’t wish it on someone necessarily but if you happen to be gifted a copy, then apologies in advance.”