Gareth Southgate’s historic World Cup semi finalists will get the ultimate honour next year – an official Subbuteo team to celebrate England’s successful tournament.
The England 2018 team will get their own Subbuteo remake in March next year as part of the Subbuteo La Leggenda Platinum Edition range. It will be the first time the modern England team has been recreated in Subbuteo and the first time the likes of Harry Kane, Jordan Pickford and Raheem Sterling will make an appearance as the iconic figures.
However, England fans will not be able to buy the team as it is available as a magazine part-work in Italy only, where a weekly classic international team is released each week as part of a 80-strong range.
The new set of Subbuteo designed to mimic the classic heavyweight Subbuteo sets of the 1970s was revealed by Italian company Centauria in August and is fully licensed by Subbuteo. The first teams released included Italy’s 1982 World Cup winners, England’s 1996 side and other teams including Czechoslovakia, Brazil and Argentina.
Recent new releases have focused on more modern teams including Panama for the first time in Subbuteo, Nigeria’s striking 2018 World Cup home shirt and now England’s team that nearly brought football home from Russia.
England’s 2018 team were the 28th new team in the range to be announced and a total of 30 overall have been confirmed.
Other new teams announced this week include Brazil and Argentina’s 2018 teams, Sweden 1994, Costa Rica’s side that knocked England out of the World Cup in 2014, Spain 1950 and finally the USA side from 2002.
The teams will be sold in Italy with information about the history of the side and the team’s tactics in a slick booklet. The teams also come with enough accessories for a full Subbuteo setup including pitches, goals, match officials and balls.
