Illustrator Daniel Nyari has a lot of interests—he's posted his own critical take on 2012 film, music, and television on his Tumblr for example—he hated Girls, liked Skyfall. But with the European big league football (soccer) seasons in full swing right now, it's his brilliant illustrations of famous footballers we're obsessing over. Nyari has been doing soccer players for a while, and has multiple series' of the footballers portraits going. "Football Heroes" commemorates his favorite bigtime players from growing up and "Playmakers" is a gallery of contemporary stars in soccer. His "EM MMXII" series, however, really drilled down into football, as it celebrated the latest in German talent in anticipation of the Euro 2012 tournament.
What we like best is that while Nyari references trading cards as well as the current style in animated cartoon, he's doing so with the composition reminiscient of a classical portrait. His soccer players gain a certain prestige when seen straight on, which also forces Nyari to represent them with clear and exaggerated features—though the uniforms and club logos are a big help. You can bet there are fans out there (of Euro football and illustration) collecting these already.