Pic: A child in Ranelagh has lost his Panini World Cup sticker album and he needs your help getting it back

Lovers of Panini sticker albums everywhere don’t need to be told what a huge deal this is.

To people who know nothing about the magic of Panini sticker albums and what they mean to football fans young and old, it’s hard to express how crushing a blow it would be to lose one. Accuse us of over dramatising things if you must but the only thing we can think to compare it to is losing your car or your house; yes, it’s that big a deal. That highly unfortunate fate was suffered by a young man from Ranelagh who misplaced his World Cup sticker album recently and quite understandably, he’s very upset about it. To help him try and get it back, he has appealed to anyone who might know of its whereabouts via this sign on a railings near Belgrave Square in Ranelagh, where the album was lost last Thursday. His Dad, Niall Fitzmaurice, has also launched an appeal on Twitter, an appeal that we here in JOE Towers are more than happy to get behind.

Help! My distraught son lost his WC 2014 Panini sticker album in Belgrave Sq, Rathmines today 3rd Jul #lost #dublin pic.twitter.com/yPI01unLBt — Niall Fitzmaurice (@niallfitz) July 3, 2014

  Does anyone that lives in the area know anything about this? If you do, get in touch with Niall via Twitter and you might just make a young football fan’s day; when sticker albums from previous eras have produced gems like the image below, we hardly need to re-iterate how big a deal this is. UPDATE: While the original album has yet to be found, a solution has been.

@breakingnewsie @JOEdotie @dailyedge @thescore_ie @ballsdotie @tomhappens Happy ending. Granny: New Book. Uncle: Stickers. Thanks All!! — Niall Fitzmaurice (@niallfitz) July 8, 2014

Great news! Hat-tip to Sean Earley for the heads up on this one