ThreeMatchBan
Every player in this quiz has turned out at the Africa Cup of Nations at some point over the years. Thirteen different countries are represented, and the line-up mixes former and current Premier League stars with cult heroes whose careers took them all over the world.
There is even a father and son appearance in the set. Mercifully, there is no Cat Stevens or Boyzone soundtrack to go with it.
Africa's greatest tournament
The first Africa Cup of Nations was played in Sudan in 1957 with just three teams: Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. Egypt won it, and they have gone on to become the competition's most successful nation, with seven titles, including a remarkable run of three in a row in 2006, 2008 and 2010. Ghana and Cameroon have been the other great powers, each lifting the trophy several times, while Ivory Coast spent years as the nearly men of the competition after their first win in 1992.
The tournament grew steadily through the following decades as more African countries gained independence and joined the Confederation of African Football. By the 1990s it had become a sixteen-team event and a showcase for players who were starting to fill the squads of clubs across France, Belgium, Germany and, increasingly, England.
For English supporters, the competition has long been a source of mixed feelings. It is traditionally played in January and February, right in the middle of the European season, so Premier League managers lose key players for weeks at a time. For the players themselves, though, it carries enormous weight, and for many of their compatriots it matters far more than anything that happens in a European league.
The 2012 tournament and beyond
The 2012 edition was co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and produced one of the most moving finals the sport has seen. Zambia beat Ivory Coast on penalties in Libreville, only a short distance from where an air crash in 1993 had killed almost the entire Zambian national team. The squad had arrived at the tournament as outsiders and left as champions.
The sticker albums tell the longer story of African football's rise. Early World Cup collections featured African squads largely made up of home-based players, most of them unknown in Europe. By the time Cameroon reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup, the first African side to get that far, collectors were starting to recognise names. A decade later, African players were among the most valuable stickers in the packet.
That shift is visible in the quiz. Some faces will be instantly familiar to anyone who watched English football in the 2000s. Others belong to players whose fame rarely reached beyond their own country and the tournament itself, and those are where the real points are earned.
How to play
Below each sticker there is an answer box. Type the player's full name and the box turns green when it is right, with the score counter at the top adding a point each time. There is no sign-up, no time limit and no penalty for guessing.
Use the full name the player was known by in his playing days. Take care with spellings, particularly with French and Portuguese names, and make sure the father and son are not mixed up.
If this set goes well, the Premier League imports sticker quiz covers the overseas players who made the move to England, the Copa America quiz does the same job for South America, and the Brits abroad quiz flips the idea around. More album challenges sit under the football sticker quiz heading.
Score thirty-eight out of thirty-eight and the reward is a cyber high five, nothing more. Fancy setting a friend the same challenge? Tweet it to them.