Football Collectable Minifigures in 2016?

This is... weird? I could understand maybe having the top players who will be there, but I wouldn't have thought there would be much interest for the whole German team outside of Germany.

The team GB figs were interesting enough to collect but 16 football players will only differ in torso print and face. If this is true it'll be the end of staying complete with the CMF for me. Simpsons 2 and Halloween were bad enough...

Yep, Team GB had at least a variety of sports. How will they make the footballers different enough to be interesting?

It is just a rumour. It's likely we'll get one football player from each European country. In terms of them being different enough so as not to be mixed up with each other, we'll have to let TLG do the best they can.

If it happens at all.

I guess the difference with team GB was that they were not based on real people and they all had difference clothes and accessories. I could see it working if they did a one fig for each of the main teams, if its just Germany I will just pick up an Mesut Ozil but how can I feel for him, I guess I will have to go to Germany to do it anyway. They have kind of miss the boat by 2 years a team Brazil from the Brazil world cup would have sold a lot better to other countries but I guess they sell more Lego in Germany so that might be your answer.

This seems to be the stranges news I have heard a long time.
16 minifigs, normally in a collection. 32 countries. So how do you choose?
16 soccerplayers especially if they came from one team will only differ in print, I agree Duq.
If they went for:
fielplayer (a ball ofcourse)
goalkeeper (big gloves)
referee ( red and yellow card)
Coach/trainer (with tactical board)
A member of the meddic team (would be nice with a carrier)
Bench player (with differt clothes)
Maybe the captain with his captain mark around his arm.

Maybe 8 minifigs like the olympics?
But 16? Just seems unlikely.

Germany are an obvious inclusion because their kit sponsor, Adidas, are also the main sponsor of UEFA (the European football governing body). If a deal was to be put in place whereby official kits were recreated alongside the UEFA branding, then it would make sense to do business with Adidas.

The shortfall is that only a fraction of the Euro 2016 teams wear Adidas kits, so such a deal may be unlikely. As others have pointed out, it would be more reasonable to recreate the 'likeness' of each team's colour-way and continue to use the Euro 2016 brand.

This news just makes me miss the old Sports Football theme, which was great fun.

Seems like this would make a better one off set

After living two years in Argentina, and being there during the world cup... I have no desire to see Germany's team in Lego form.

But I would be willing to pay like $10 for a Messi fig... Just my crazy opinion.

Thankfully not interested at all.

Just saw the headline and thought it meant American Football :(

That's a shame. The Olympic figs had some nice variety to them, but it seems unlikely that we'd get the same kind of treatment if it's a single team for a single sport. I'll be interested to see what comes out of this.

When I first read the title, I thought American Football also. (You know, the sport that rarely uses the feet with the ball..). Although I wouldn't care about that being a CMF either...

With that said, I am not much of a soccer fan. I've never watched, it just seems like a lot of running...HOWEVER, if the prints are worthwhile or some new face prints/skin colors, I'd definitely pick these up. Granted, I doubt they will be available here anyway, so it won't really matter.

I think from both a commercial viewpoint as well as a football fan standpoint this might be a genius move on TLG's part. Everyone (especially kids) who is mad about football might want to collect these just like people (used to?!) collect football cards with photos with the faces of all the players on them. But instead of football cards, people might now want to collect minifig versions of all their football heroes. I don't care much for football, but if they do the figs in flesh tone, you might end up with a whole bunch of interesting heads with varying faces, expressions, and skin-tones. As well as an abundance of lots of different hairpieces; two-tone short sleeved arms; and two or perhaps three-tone legs (shorts; flesh coloured knees; and football shoes and socks). Of course all minifigs should get a shirt with their respective number and name printed on the back of the torso's, and it should include not just the German team, but all teams that partake in the European Championship.
I know in The Netherlands when ever there is a Euro or World Championship the whole country turns orange so much that it might hurt your eyes, and lots of people get hyped up and buy all these orange football paraphernalia.
However this will only be a hit if they don't just do the German team otherwise no one cares for them except the Germans themselves.

It would make more sense to do either a star from each country or do 16 star players from leagues around the world. I can understand doing one team if it's a set like the national teams from the soccer theme in the early 2000s, but I can't see just one team selling well outside of it's own country. Personally, I'd love if they did a hockey series with 16 NHL stars, but OYO owns the licensing for that and NFL and MLB. Maybe an NBA series in the US?

I can see this as 2 boxes with 6 set players in each box.
Lego could probably sell plenty of those.

But as a random CMF, this is a terrible idea from my perspective.
Even if they do include different accessories in each bag ......

Sounds too similar to the CB Sports Stars football bags or
The CB topps MATCH ATTAX, which did at least come with a Clear Plastic Box to display the figure in.

Well these are obviously rumours, Germany hasn't even qualified for Euro 2016.

Think of the grim reality of not being able to choose by feeling the packets - hairstyles alone would be a nightmare to differentiate!

I'd buy these for sure, whether it's just Germany or a number of different players from other countries.

They might have little value to LEGO fans but I think that it's cool when two of my interests crossover.

I like the idea of collectable soccer-related minifigures. But if you're going to do figures based off actual people, shouldn't you do the most famous players of the sport and not just those from one country? Even though Germany is a HUGE market for LEGO and they do have many famous players, other teams have Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, etc.

Doing national teams for all the markets LEGO has invested in would be going overboard. But it's Team GB again; niche market. I'd really prefer a few players from multiple national teams.

Don't just do the minifigures, do the entire soccer/football stadium like they did for the 1996 World Cup. Those sets are still some of the gems of my collection.

If these materialise I think I'll give them a miss.

If this comes out, it'll be the only series where I don't get a single minifig. I hate European football.

Packaging, case, and LEGO.com pics of Series 14 have been found!

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=104386&st=1150

I was hoping for NFL...

I think it makes sense to chose the german team. They are the WC winners and germany alone is a huge market. But i think this will also atract people all over the world if you like football and Lego. And from a sports point of view it fitts to chose the whole team because even if germany does'nt have players like Messi, they end up having a real TEAM.

German players at clubs in London, Madrid and now Manchaster could increase non-german interest in "die Mannschaft" which btw. is'nt used as a name for the national team in germany at all :-)

I've just come back from a holiday in China where I bought a set of Clone Brand World Cup Minifigs - set of 8 from England, Italy, Germany, Uruguay, Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal. Each player comes with a football and a trophy.

If TLG released a sports theme minifig collection every four years, then they might make pro road cyclists! They've done it before with the team Tekekom stuff! I would so love to own an official road cyclist in Lego!

Euro 2016 takes place in France .... no comment ! Lego the Capitalist

These would be good for a soccer moc

Boy was i excited when I first saw the announcement, but as I read the article and the comments, I realized it is a huge shame that they don't do players from different countries. I feel like TLG could do a lot more with (and maybe even bring back) the sports theme. I don't know about anyone else out there but THE LEGO MOVIE scene with the NBA players made me get the computer and see how much the old sports sets were selling for on eBay.

Wonder if they will be released with a tippkick-esque set?

If this will be like the GB Olympic figures, that's fine.
But a whole minifigure line?
Doesn't seem like a good idea...

But that might just be the Australian in me, I would like a Doctor Who wave...