VintageFootball.Cards is honoured to preserve some of the very first football-card websites ever created.
As Carl Wilkes launches his new site — footballsoccercards.co.uk — we have been entrusted with maintaining his earlier online projects: rarecards.co.uk, italiafrance.eu, and footballsoccercards.com.
These sites hold a unique place in the history of the hobby. RareCards and ItaliaFrance were among the earliest football-card websites in existence—appearing just a couple of years before the famous Nigel’s Website, which VintageFootball.Cards now continues and builds upon. Because of their historical importance, we do not alter RareCards or ItaliaFrance in any way. They remain exactly as they were, preserved as digital time capsules from the dawn of online football-card collecting.
FootballSoccerCards.com, on the other hand, has been carefully refreshed with a more modern look and improved structure. However, every piece of content — all text, all scans, all images — has been kept precisely as they appeared on Carl’s original website. Nothing has been changed, removed, or rewritten; only the presentation has been updated so the material can be enjoyed more comfortably today.
At VintageFootball.Cards, our aim is simple: to honour the past, safeguard Carl’s early work, and keep this piece of football-card history alive for collectors everywhere. Welcome to Carl’s Corner — where the legacy continues.
www.rarecards.co.uk
RareCards.co.uk
RareCards.co.uk was Carl Wilkes’ original football-card website — described by Carl himself as “the oldest soccer cards and sports card website in the world.” Its roots go back to 1995, when the first version appeared under the name John Allen FC, later becoming Football Card Collector in 1997.
Although the site has now been taken offline, its content is preserved in full here on VintageFootball.Cards, ensuring that this early cornerstone of the hobby remains available to collectors.
www.italiafrance.eu
ItaliaFrance.eu
ItaliaFrance.eu was the later home of Carl’s long-running football-card project, relaunched under the ItaliaFrance name during the 2006 World Cup. From that point onward, it served as the main host for his archives, catalogues, scans and historical notes.
The original domain is no longer active, but the entire site — with its structure, images and pages — now continues here on VintageFootball.Cards, kept exactly as it appeared so that this important part of football-card history remains accessible.
