A mystery former England player is to sell football shirts he collected from opponents and team-mate Peter Shilton during the 1990 World Cup.
The ex-international is seeking up to £300,000 for eight jerseys from the Three Lions’ seven matches in the tournament, which ended in semi-final penalty-shootout heartache at the hands of West Germany.
They include the shirt worn by Shilton, England’s most capped goalkeeper, during the latter match, which is said to have been handed to the seller in the dressing room afterwards and signed at some point by the rest of the squad.
It and the other seven jerseys have been listed for sale by Derbyshire-based Hansons Auctioneers, which has listed Shilton’s for an estimated £40,000-£50,000 and remaining seven collectively for between £150,000 and £250,000.
Charles Hanson, owner of the auction firm, said he could not reveal which ex-England star was selling the shirts “due to client confidentiality”.
“However, he played a crucial role in Italia 1990 and enjoyed a stellar career in football,” he added.
Of the Shilton shirt, Hanson said the goalkeeper “gave it away to our vendor in the dressing room after the pain of that penalty shootout defeat against West Germany”.
The other seven shirts are said to have been exchanged with opposition players who competed against England during the tournament.
Described as the “magnificent seven”, they were originally issued to the Republic of Ireland’s Andy Townsend, Johannes van’t Schip, from Holland, Egypt’s Sader Eid, Belgium’s Marc Van Der Linden, Emmanuel Kunde, from Cameroon, West Germany’s Klaus Augenthaler and Italy’s Giuseppe Giannini.
Hanson added: “This unique set of retro shirts sweeps us back to a tournament that will stay forever etched in millions of memories.”
Bids for the shirts are being invited by private tender. The shirts are being sold a little over a year after former England player Steve Hodge received a world-record £7.1 million for the Argentina jersey Diego Maradona wore during the 1986 World Cup match between the countries.
That game featured Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal and a later goal regarded by many as the greatest ever scored.
