After establishing it on the gridiron and the baseball diamond, Topps brought its Inception product to the pitch for the first time with its 2020 Inception UEFA Champions League release. The decision proved incredibly popular with fans, who snapped up the online-exclusive release so quickly in Europe that it never had a chance to hit Topps’ US site. Each seven-card box included one autograph.
As one of the kings of the continental competition and an all-time soccer legend, Lionel Messi is unsurprisingly peppered throughout the set. With the release coinciding with the end of his trophy-laden career at Barcelona, fans eagerly opened boxes hoping to land an autographed card of La Pulga in his famous Catalan colors. Topps honored Messi with a standalone Patch Autographs card, producing the card in four versions: Purple /25, Red /10, Orange /5, and this gorgeous Gold 1/1. The printing represents the intersection of on-field and collecting history, combining the start of the Topps Inception soccer product with the end of Messi’s incredible Barca run. The card labels Messi The Perfect 10. And with a PSA 10 / DNA 10 grade and 1/1 print run, it’s hard to describe this card any other way.
The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 01/10/2024.
