Plus: players who were more prolific at international level and missing the World Cup due to bizarre injuries. Mail us here or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“Panini have to select the players for their World Cup sticker albums in advance of the squads being announced – so what has been the most glaring omission?” enquires Dan Leach.

Publishing schedules mean Panini and other sticker-album manufacturers cannot wait for the World Cup squads to be announced – and they certainly can’t wait for unlikely heroes to emerge once the tournament starts. That, and the fact the albums usually contain around 16 players rather than the full squad, inevitably means a few have slipped through the net.

“A mega one from Italia 90 would surely be Salvatore Schillaci, who was not included in the Italy spread,” begins Ben Raza. “To be fair, he only had one cap to his name when the tournament began. The only striker who came close to matching his feats was Roger Milla … who also wasn’t featured. Nor was David Platt, if we’re talking about England.”

World Cup 2018: complete guide to all 736 players Read more

One other Italia 90 star missing from the Panini album: Sergio Goycochea, the back-up Argentina keeper whose penalty saves took them to the final. Ben has also been through the USA 94 album – so we don’t have to! “Colombia’s featured players do not include the tragic Andrés Escobar, although otherwise this one seems pretty sound as a selection.”

None of the stars of USA 94 were missing, though a few of the less-famous players who appeared in the final didn’t make the cut, including Aldair, Mazinho, Viola and Daniele Massaro. Florian Labrouche points out that Javier Zanetti, whose ingenious free-kick helped eliminate England in the second round, was left out of the France 98 album – and then included in 2006 and 2010, when he did not make the final squad.

We found a few other surprising omissions from 1998, including Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, Bixente Lizarazu, Emmanuel Petit and Edgar Davids. Schillaci is not the only one-hit wonder who did not get the Panini treatment. Josimar was not among the Brazil stickers in 1986, and a number of World Cup final goalscorers also missed the cut: Italy’s Roberto Boninsegna in 1970, the Netherlands’ Dick Nanninga in 1978, Italy’s Alessandro Altobelli in 1982 and the aforementioned Petit.

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A couple of Golden Boot winners were never part of a got-got-need conversation: Schillaci in 1990 and Germany’s Thomas Muller in 2010. Schillaci is also the only Golden Ball winner to miss out. In lieu of a life, we leafed through every Panini album since they were introduced in 1970. These are the most notable omissions we found:

1970: Clodoaldo (Brazil), Roberto Boninsegna (Italy).

1974: Rainer Bonhof and Bernd Holzenbein (West Germany), Jan Jongbloed, Wim Jansen and Wim Rijsbergen (Netherlands), Andrzej Szarmach and Wladyslaw Zmuda (Poland), Elias Figueroa (Chile).

1978: Arie Haan and Dick Nanninga (Netherlands), Antonio Cabrini (Italy).

1982: Alessandro Altobelli (Italy), Manuel Amoros (France).

1986: Josimar (Brazil), Igor Belanov (USSR), Peter Beardsley (England).

1990: Salvatore Schillaci (Italy), Sergio Goycochea (Argentina), Roger Milla (Cameroon), David Platt and Mark Wright (England).

1994: Aldair, Mazinho and Viola (Brazil), Andres Escobar (Colombia), Daniele Massaro (Italy).

1998: Emmanuel Petit and Bixente Lizarazu (France), Edgar Davids (Netherlands), Michael Owen and Alan Shearer (England), Javier Zanetti (Argentina).

2002: Ronaldinho (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Nicky Butt (England).

2006: Jens Lehmann (Germany), Maxi Rodríguez (Argentina).

2010: Pedro (Spain), Thomas Müller (Germany).

2014: Benedikt Howedes (Germany), Tim Krul (Netherlands).

Have we missed anyone else important? If so, email knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet@TheKnowledge_GU

Play Video 10:45 Meet the stickerheads: the people keeping Panini alive in the digital age – video

More prolific at international level

“Right-back Michael Marrone scored a goal in his only international appearance for Australia, a 9-0 hiding of Guam in 2012,” notes Rohan Back. “Marrone has not been quite as productive at club level, finding the net once in 200 league matches, a rather meagre return of 0.005 goals per match. Are there any examples of players being even more prolific at national level, as compared with clubs?”

There are plenty of these, Rohan. But let’s start at the top with Der Bomber, Gerd Müller, who – as we have noted before – was incredible at club level, scoring 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga matches for 1861 Nördlingen and Bayern Munich, but ridiculous when he slipped on an international shirt. He banged in 68 goals in 62 games for West Germany. That’s a dizzying 1.09 per game. “Peter Crouch scored 22 goals for England in 42 games (0.52 goals per game) but has a record of 203 goals in 703 games (0.29 goals per game) at club level,” writes Neil Goodall. “Interestingly, his club record in Europe (24 goals in 53 games, 0.45 per game) is closer to his international scoring record which suggests that teams from abroad just don’t know how to handle Crouchinho.”

Kunishige Kamamoto, widely regarded as Japan’s greatest player, scored 202 goals in 251 games for Yanmar Diesel, a stunning ratio of 0.80 goals per game. But in Samurai Blue, he found another level, scoring 75 in 76, a national team record unlikely to be surpassed. Italy legend Luigi Riva’s international goals ratio of 0.83 per game trounces his domestic one, a still-none-too-shabby 0.50, while Gary Lineker had a 0.50 goals per game ratio at club level but found 10% more when he wore the three lions, scoring his 48 England goals in 80 games, a ratio of 0.60. And then, there’s also this:

Vishnu Prashanth (@VshnuPrshnth) Jamie Carragher has 5 goals in all competitions for club and country, in 737 appearances, a goal/game ratio of 0.0067.

But, if own goals (7) count negatively, his ratio falls to -0.0027. Technically, a numerically smaller goals/game ratio than Michael Marrone. 🤷‍♂️

Knowledge archive

“After seeing that Nani has ruled himself out with an injury suffered while attempting an overhead kick in training, I was wondering what would be the most ridiculous way in which a player has cost themselves a World Cup appearance?” asked Steven Maley in June 2010.

Injury-wise, as many of you pointed out, Brazil captain Emerson ruled himself out of the 2002 tournament after injuring a shoulder while mucking about in goal in training and the Spain goalkeeper, Santiago Cañizares, missed the same tournament after severing a tendon in his foot after dropping a bottle of aftershave on it. And though he didn’t miss a World Cup game, it’s always worth remembering Norway defender Svein Grondalen had to withdraw from an international during the 1970s after colliding with a moose while out jogging.

Can you help?

“I have vague recollections of a charity match between Old England and Old Scotland, back in the early 1970s (maybe to celebrate the centenary of the first match in 1972),” writes Mark Mills. “Something tells me it was held at Old Trafford. Google doesn’t seem to have details of the match – can the Knowledge shed any light?”

“While admiring the jerseys that the teams will be fashioning at this summer’s World Cup, I noticed that it looks a bit like the cover of a White Stripes album. Of the 32 teams, 13 are red, and eight are white (of which five have a red trim). I make that only 11 teams not playing in red or white. Which leads me to the question, is this the least colourful international football competition ever?” asks Sam Flitman.