Players making their first-ever Champions League appearance will receive a special patch from UEFA to wear on their shirts.

The Champions League begins this evening in a dedicated match-week, with fixtures also scheduled to be played on Thursday.

Any player making a debut in the competition, including those coming on as substitutes, will wear a one-off patch issued by UEFA.

This ‘debut patch’ applies only to a player’s first Champions League appearance. As for what happens to the patches after the match, football appears to have borrowed an idea from the NBA.

Once a player has completed his debut while wearing the patch, it will be collected and converted into a unique trading card. These items are expected to command huge sums of money.

The concept is similar to NBA debut patches and rookie trading cards, which can be sold for enormous fees if the players go on to become legends of the sport.

Cooper Flagg, who produced a Rookie of the Year-calibre NBA campaign in his breakthrough season with the Dallas Mavericks, recently had his debut patch put up for auction. It is expected to fetch more than $1 million.

One of LeBron James’ rookie trading cards, signed by the NBA icon, is thought to be worth about $10 million, with the now-Philadelphia 76er regarded by many as arguably the greatest player in the sport’s history.

In the Champions League, a number of prominent players are expected to make their debuts in the competition and will therefore wear the tournament’s debut patches.

At Manchester United, both Bryan Mbeumo, who is expected to feature in the Red Devils’ opening match against Sabah FK on Thursday, and Carlos Baleba are set for their Champions League debuts.

Regarding the latter, Michael Carrick said last week that his debut should come in 10-14 days. He is initially expected to feature in either a Premier League or Carabao Cup match, followed later by a Champions League appearance during the league phase.

The introduction also follows patches being used at the 2026 World Cup as part of a licensing agreement with trading card and stickers company Fanatics.

Global stars such as Erling Haaland, Lamine Yamal and Dan Burn wore debut patches there, which were later transformed into high-value collectables.

Winners from previous editions of the Golden Boot, Golden Glove and Golden Ball were also given special patches in North America.