The soccer card market is really jumping right now. We're seeing a lot of action, and it seems like the 2026 FIFA World Cup is acting as a huge liquidity event for many key players. It's not just the big names, either; some cards for less-established players are seeing pretty wild spikes.
Kylian Mbappé's cards are definitely getting a boost from France's run to the World Cup semifinals. His 2025 Donruss Road to FIFA World Cup #145 Pink Cubic /45 card, for example, jumped a crazy 117% over the last 7 and 30 days. That's a huge move, and it shows how player performance on the biggest stage directly translates to card value. We've talked about the "flight to quality" before, and guys like Mbappé are probably at the top of that list.
Then there's Lamine Yamal. After Spain's World Cup win, he's basically cemented himself as a global icon, and his cards are showing it. A raw Topps Chrome UCC base rookie of his is sitting around €5-15, but a PSA 10 refractor can clear €200-800. Those rare Aqua /75 parallels are even going for over €900. Just today, a 2023 2024 Panini Select Lamine Yamal RC #98 Spain FIFA PSA 10 sold for $200.00. That's a solid return, especially considering the raw version of his 2025 Donruss Road to FIFA World Cup #12 Kaboom. card saw a 33.3% increase in the last week alone. Clearly, collectors are chasing his stuff hard.
Rookies on the Rise: Sullivan's Surge
It isn't all about the established stars, though. Cavan Sullivan, the 16-year-old from the Philadelphia Union, is a name we've been watching pretty closely. His market is, as we've put it, "ready to go nuts," especially after his recent MLS goal. We saw his 2025 Topps Chrome MLS Rookie Arrival Patch Auto Gold 1/1 sell for $90,158 in July. And get this: his Debut Patch Auto from the same set is currently sitting at $61,551 with six days left in the auction, with what we think is a pretty realistic floor of $100,000. Topps even dropped a NOW card for that goal, which just adds fuel to the fire. This is a clear example of player performance driving immediate, significant market interest, especially for high-upside rookies.
Grading's Place and Specific Plays
Grading is still a big deal, but it's gotten slower, and collectors are being more selective. PSA still holds the lion's share, but CGC is making inroads, especially in soccer and TCGs. We've seen SGC's volume drop since they axed those group submission discounts early this year, which probably tells you something about how sensitive the market is to grading costs and turnaround. When you're looking at cards like Yamal's, that PSA 10 premium is real. For instance, a PSA 9 of the 2017 Select Soccer KABOOM. #1 Cristiano Ronaldo SSP CASE HIT sold for $7999.00 today. We've seen PSA 10s of that card fetch significantly more, so knowing when to chase the 10 versus settle for a strong 9 is crucial, especially with current grading backlogs.
Beyond the big names, we're seeing some interesting movement in cards for players like Folarin Balogun, whose 2026 Prizm World Cup #438 Blue Wave /55 shot up 140% in the last week. Luis Diaz's 2026 Prizm World Cup #9 National Landmarks /(SSP) is up 88.2% in the same timeframe. These aren't necessarily the top-tier guys globally, but their World Cup performances are creating real market heat. Even a raw 2026 Panini Prizm World Cup Michael Murillo Green Choice Prizm #343 Panama /18 sold for $51.00 today, which might seem small, but it shows activity across the board for players performing in the tournament.
Looking Ahead: Women's Football and Undervalued Segments
It's easy to get caught up in the World Cup frenzy, but we think there's still serious opportunity in women's football cards. We've been saying this for a bit: low print runs and a growing audience make for a kind of undervalued segment. We saw a 2025-26 Topps Chrome Uefa Women's CL Arise Aitana Bonmati #A-19 sell for $103.50 today, raw. That's a solid sale for a non-auto, non-parallel base insert. It points to growing interest and, in our opinion, a lot of room to run. We're talking "history, scarcity, and greatness" here, not just short-term hype.
So, what's the play? For the World Cup movers like Mbappé and Yamal, the obvious move is to watch their continued performance. If you're holding high-grade parallels of these guys, now might be the time to consider moving them into the market to capture that World Cup bump. For newer players like Sullivan and the women's football segment, we'd say there's still significant upside, especially on raw parallels and autos. It's about getting in before the broader market fully catches up.