The year was 1994. O.J. Simpson was accused of double murder, “I Swear” by All-4-One dominated the music charts and soccer’s World Cup was held in the United States.
As the U.S. prepares to host another FIFA World Cup this month – with co-hosts Canada and Mexico – one can’t help but look back to the summer of ’94 and an iconic Upper Deck soccer set that was released at the time.
The card set was unique in that soccer collectors, until as recently as 2018, were mostly into stickers, not cards. Trading cards are a largely North American pursuit, but one that is now global. This was not the case 32 years ago.
The Upper Deck USA ’94 set made up of 330 base cards (both in English and Spanish versions) and featured the greatest soccer players in the world at the time, including Italy’s Roberto Baggio and U.S. defender Alexi Lalas. There is also an English/Japanese version of the set that’s much harder to find.
I bought lots of these cards starting in 1993. Soccer cards were a rarity at the time. Their design and look were typical Upper Deck for the time. No other mainstream card company had ever made soccer cards in the U.S., other than Pacific’s MISL (Men’s Indoor Soccer League) or Pro Set’s English League sets. Notably, Upper Deck’s soccer set also featured two of hockey’s biggest legends: Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky.
The 1994 Upper Deck World Cup set stands out as one of the more unusual crossover issues of the 1990s card boom. Released to commemorate the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the set blended international soccer stars with a distinctly North American marketing twist: Celebrity “Honorary Captains.”
Both players were under contract with Upper Deck at the time (Gretzky still is) and Upper Deck decided to add sports stars from outside soccer to the set. The 10-card “Honorary Captains” subset includes both Gretzky (in a now-iconic pose where he looks like he’s squinting from the sun) representing Los Angeles, one of the host cities, and Howe, who was repping Detroit.
These “HC” inserts were also part of another four-card subset featuring UD’s greatest athletes: Michael Jordan, Reggie Jackson, Joe Montana and Gretzky. In this second Gretzky cards, The Great One is posing with a soccer ball under his foot as if he’s ready to take a penalty kick.
At a time when Upper Deck was pushing boundaries in card design and licensing, these inserts captured the attention of a broader sports moment. The early ‘90s trading card market thrived on innovation — such as foil stamping, glossy photography and creative inserts — and the World Cup set fit into that marketing ethos. What truly made it memorable was how it connected soccer to a wider American audience by leveraging star power from other sports.
By 1994, Gretzky was already firmly established as hockey’s greatest player. His “Honorary Captain” card (C8 in the set) presents him not as a hockey player per se, but as a global sports ambassador. That framing is key: Upper Deck wasn’t just celebrating his NHL dominance — it was positioning him as a universal icon recognizable even to casual sports fans.
This card gains additional historical resonance when viewed in the context of 1994 itself. That same year, Gretzky surpassed Howe as the NHL’s all-time leading scorer with 802 goals, forever cementing his place atop the game’s record books. From a hobby standpoint, both Gretzky cards from this set are often the most sought-after.
Three decades later, the hockey cards in the 1994 Upper Deck World Cup set occupy a unique niche. They are not traditional hockey cards, yet they feature two of the sport’s greatest legends. They are not part of an NHL-licensed sets, yet they remain cataloged and pursued by hockey collectors. More importantly, they remain collectable to this day.
Clemente Lisi is a lifelong Rangers fan who first started collecting cards in 1986. He collects both vintage and modern with a focus on rookie cards. Follow him on X/Twitter @ClementeLisi and check out his new book, The World Cup: A History of the Planet’s Biggest Sporting Event, 2026 Edition.
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