World’s largest collection of match worn Manchester City shirts is set to fetch £1 million at auction

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Life-long fan Mark McCarthy has spent four decades amassing 282 shirts which were worn from 1926 up to the present day.  The shirts include those worn by City legends Yaya Touré, Fernandinho, David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero and Erling Haaland.  The incredible collection is expected to sell for up to £1 million when it goes under the hammer at Hansons World of Football.

Transcript

00:00Hanson's World Football are delighted to be offering for sale the unique Manchester

00:06City Match Shirt Collection. 282 match shirts. I'm delighted to be joined today

00:14by the owner of this collection, Mark McCarthy. And it really is something Mark,

00:21just tell me how did this collection come about? Well I have to go back to 1983

00:28Charles, to where it all started for me as an eight-year-old. I had no interest in

00:31football, but a visit to my granddad's house where he informed me of a cousin

00:35I'd never heard of, Mick McCarthy, who'd be joining Manchester City. So as proud

00:39to hear that from a granddad, I declared myself a Manchester City supporter and

00:43as time went on I became obsessed with Man City. It was always a dream then to

00:47own a shirt of my cousins and eventually trace one down and once I got the shirt,

00:52the feel of it and reminiscing in the battles that shirt would been in the

00:55changing room's floor, it perhaps had been on, because obviously players didn't get

00:59you know a shirt per game back then. And then the collection started from there

01:02and it started getting bigger and bigger and then it works all the way back to

01:051926 now. And of course they're being sold as one lot, so for a collector or a

01:11museum it offers such potential for future insight into the history of

01:18football of one of the world's greatest teams. Mark, you've pulled out what you

01:22might call some personal favourites. Tell me about them. All shirts tell a story

01:28and when we're starting with a guy who may not be a well-known player, Billy

01:32Soden, a trialist for Man City back in 1953 when they'd play up you know a

01:37mid-season friendly and they played hearts to open Main Road's floodlights

01:40and this shirt, he designed one set of shirts with a shiny look you know so

01:44most of the players could pick each other out. It must have worked, they won

01:486-3, Soden got a hat-trick. So that shirt for the history, first the

01:51floodlights, it's got its own story, it's unique. And what's the shirt beside it Mark?

01:55Well that's arguably one of City's greatest ever players, Colin Bell, a

02:00long-sleeve shirt synonymous for the number 8 which that shirt is that Colin

02:03wore. How did you acquire that shirt? Well that came from a former player, he was a

02:09schoolboy at City at the time. The shirt was actually torn in the fixture and it

02:13was thrown to the dugout. Mark Lillis was the player. He was told to go and get it

02:17you know fixed by the laundry ladies. In them days these shirts were worn week in

02:21week out. I remember Mike Somerville telling me if it was torn you simply had to

02:24fix it yourself and it was given to Mark and he kept it for years and years you

02:28know. Well we go from Colin Bell to David Silva, one of the modern-day greats of

02:32City players. It's an unwashed shirt, that gives it

02:35provenance, you can match it to the game. It's signed by David Silva so you can

02:39see the match mark, Silva played in the game, capped in the team, scored a goal.

02:43And carrying on Mark, what have we got? So another modern-day great, Yaya Torre,

02:47who was synonymous for putting VIX on his shirt, which you can see on this shirt.

02:51Yaya Torre really, he was the stellar big-name signing for City when they got

02:56investment. He was really the first one. And this was worn in the game? Against

03:00Aston Villa. 0-0 at half-time, Torre opened the score in second half, they

03:04went on to win 4-0. And on the end here Mark, what have we got? So this shirt is

03:08probably, for me and most City fans of a certain age, probably the most iconic

03:12shirt. This is the shirt worn in a game against Gillingham 1999. There

03:17were 2-0 down, with eight minutes left. Two goals in the last two minutes to

03:21take it into extra time. We were in Langley Street in the old third division

03:25then, so maybe if them goals hadn't come, then they wouldn't have got back. Maybe

03:28the vestment wouldn't have come. So that's such a pivotal shirt for our history. If it

03:33wasn't for that game, that shirt, there might not have been the Yaya Torres and

03:36the David Silva's we've been talking about. And there's actually

03:39eight of them shirts from that game in the collection. And that's Andy

03:43Morrison's, who was the captain that day. And it's signed by Andy on the back

03:48himself. Almost gives you a shiver, because it was the crossroads I suppose.

03:52It was then the climb out of League Three. What you've created Mark, what

03:57you've crafted, is a collection like no other. A collection and narrative which

04:03defines the rich fabric of our beautiful game. Every shirt tells a story and every

04:09shirt will very much have that provenance with it. This remarkable

04:13collection of 282 Manchester City match shirts will be sold in a two-week timed

04:23auction, commencing on the 29th of July and will conclude on the 9th of August

04:30at the Football Museum in Manchester. Thank you Mark McCarthy. It's an absolute

04:35honour to be handling your collection. Thank you.

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