For the first time Topps is bringing the high-end Royalty brand to soccer with 2025-26 Topps Royalty Premier League. The boxes are very expensive but come with 10 cards including 6 autographs which is why they cost so much. The designs are fit for a King with tons of gaudy design elements and foil. The designs will be one you likely have a strong feeling about one way or the other. Check out the review below to see what you can expect if you are getting involved.
*All Search On Ebay links are affiliate links.
2025-26 Topps Royalty Premier League Breakdown
Checklist – HERE
Print Run – ~1,350 Hobby cases (Search On Ebay)
Soccer Cards HQ Review – Patch Autos are the big chase in Royalty sets in other sports and for the most part that will be the case in 2026 Topps Royalty Premier League. 3 of the big 2025-26 hobby rookies (Rio Ngumoha (Search On Ebay), Estevao (Search On Ebay) and Max Dowman (Search On Ebay)) have rookie patch autos in the set. FWIW I feel like I saw more Rio hit than anyone. I can’t say for certain that he has the most actual cards in the set because not every player gets a full run, but if I had to bet he does. There is also a rookie who is actually playing regular minutes and who’s arguably done way more right now than any of those 3. Since Josh King (Search On Ebay) plays for Fulham he doesn’t get near the hobby hype. If any of these rookies do prove to be superstars their rookie auto from this set could prove to be their second best assuming they are in Dynasty. Yea 2025-26 Topps Dynasty is still yet to come so keep that in mind when buying these Royalty cards. I also wouldn’t want to be sitting on lesser sticker autos of those players as this flood of on-cards hit the market. On the other hand I wouldn’t rush out to pick up base cards from this set as they have proven not to do that well in Royalty in other sports. That doesn’t mean it will be the case here, but I would tread lightly until we see how the after market treats them.
The Crowned Champions autos (Search On Ebay) will likely be big chases as they feature the plyer/coach holding the Premier League trophy. Trophy holding cards always do quite well. The biggest chase of the bunch are going to be the Arsène Wenger autos (Search On Ebay) since this is the 1st time he signed for Topps. Arsenal collectors are the best in the hobby and this card will be special to them. That said once some starts signing Topps usually keeps them signing as we have seen with Sir Alex Ferguson. Topps also gave a nod to 2 past title winning teams with their own subsets in 2025-26 Topps Royalty Premier League. That being the A Royal Miracle cards featuring Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez of the 2015-16 Leicester City team and the 20 Autograph Edition which marks Liverpool’s 2024-25 title. For the patch they managed to use and the significance the Riyad Mahrez 1/1 Topps previewed is one of the cooler soccer cards ever made.
One of the biggest disappointments is I wanted to see if it was going to be all on-card autographs and match worn relics which they are not. I also wanted to see the quality of patches used which for the most part is not great. A good majority of the autos are on-card and for the most part most of the bigger hobby names I have see are. Player worn patches are a much bigger problem. That said Topps did finally start giving some provenance on some of the match worn cards which is great. This is something they have done in the past in other sports so it is good to see that they are at least making an attempt in soccer. Most of the booklets I have seen have been napkin patches as well. There is no reason to have a booklet with a huge space for a patch if you are just putting a single color patch in there.
Topps presold 2026 Topps Royalty Premier League at $1000. I should probably say “presold” because not many regular people had a chance to actually get product through EQL. That has been the modus operandi for Topps in a lot of these low print run premium products they have put out. If you were lucky enough to get a box at $1000 it was a no brainer. Of course now since very little has hit the after market and breakers/distributors got a significant majority of it, the box prices have shot up. If you are buying a box now at $2500+ your chance at a decent ROI are much less. Breaker markup on these has been ridiculous so since it is a low print run the prices will box/case prices will keep going up. It becomes the situation where the price doesn’t go up because it reflects the after market singles prices or ROI, but because breakers can charge whatever they want since people like to gamble. This means they’re willing to pay up just to get the product as the ROI to the end use plummets.
Ultimately the long term success of this product will come down to how the rookies perform in the long run. I do think Mo Salah patch autos (Search On Ebay) in here could be sneaky cards as he will only have this year of Liverpool playing days autos. If he didn’t make it into Dynasty these will be his best. There are some great legends cards in here but most are non playing days and honestly we have seen so many autos of them now that collectors have so much to choose from. Look at Dynasty prices as your guide for some of these players before buying Royalty singles. While Royalty is a solid product, in most cases it won’t hold a candle to Dynasty. There will be a few exceptions when the patch warrants it. I don’t want it to seem like I’m down on Royalty because it is a great set and there are some amazing truly collectible cards in it. I have just seen so many soccer card collectors get burned on sets like this. I am very interested to see how the singles perform in the secondary market. If I had to guess it when it settles they won’t go for as much as people think kind of like what happened with Reverence, but I could be wrong. If you are getting involved in Royalty good luck and I hope you hit what you are chasing.
Read more about Lionel Messi Soccer Card Case Hits. If you have any questions just shoot a DM on Twitter @SoccerCardsHQ or IG @SoccerCardsHQ You can also join the FaceBook Group and ask questions or watch the YouTube Channel.