Legend Milburn in soccer sale highlights
These boots were made for scoring. And now the pair, once worn by English football legend Jackie Milburn, will be the highlight of a soccer memorabilia sale next week.
Newcastle United star Milburn, the delight of football fans in the 1950s when he scored the fastest goal in the history of the FA Cup Final, with a header in the first minute against Manchester City, gave the boots to a young fan in 1965.
But he then borrowed them back two years later when he was awarded a belated testimonial match in front of 45,000 adoring fans, known colloquially as the Toon Army.
After the match he returned the boots to the young fan who has cherished them since then. They are expected to fetch up to £15,000 ($23,570) at the Sotheby’s auction in London on 11 September.
Wor hero
Affectionately dubbed Wor Jackie (Our Jackie) by fans of Newcastle United, Milburn scored an impressive 238 goals in 492 appearances for the club between 1943 and 1957. He still holds the record for the most senior goals for the side.
He also scored nine goals in his 13 appearances for England, and was described by Bob Stokoe, one of his contemporaries, as “the most exciting thing I have ever seen on a football field”.
Milburn, whose dramatic turn of speed and dazzling ball control made him a legend in his own lifetime, left Newcastle and moved into management in 1957, but was never truly happy in the role.
He spent more than two decades as a newspaper football commentator in the north of England, dying in October 1988, aged 64.
A huge bronze statue was erected in the city centre of Newcastle as a memorial to one of Britain’s finest soccer legends.