Bobby Moore’s lost 1966 World Cup shirt ‘found 30 years after going missing’
The shirt worn by Bobby Moore during England’s 1966 World Cup victory has reportedly been traced to a private collector – who is now being urged to return it to the late footballer’s family.
The red number-6 top, which Moore wore as he lifted the trophy at Wembley, was kept in a bag in the attic of ex-wife Tina’s Essex home before vanishing more than three decades ago.
Tina spent years trying to find the shirt, now said to be worth £1 million, as well as a yellow Brazil shirt Moore swapped with Pelé at the following World Cup, which went missing at the same time.
It was presumed lost until 2021, when the FA called Tina to say Moore’s jersey would be pictured in an upcoming book, ‘Three Lions on a Shirt: The Official History of the England Football Jersey’.
Its authors were Neville Evans, who is said to be the UK’s biggest collector of football memorabilia, Daren Burney and Simon Shakeshaft.
The FA said the shirt had been bought at an auction of an ‘unknown deceased person’, according to Moore’s daughter Roberta.
But the buyer insisted on remaining anonymous and did not respond to Tina and Roberta’s attempts at getting in contact.
The photograph was omitted after Moore’s family threatened to dispute its inclusion.
At the time, Burney claimed the shirt had been pictured two years earlier and that that he and his co-authors had since been ‘informed by lawyers it is no longer under the same ownership.
‘We can categorically state that we have no idea where the shirt is now or who owns it’, he told BBC News last year.
The Sun reports the shirt is now in the possession of one of the authors, Evans, who owns a trove of historical jerseys which he calls the ‘National Football Shirt Collection’.
A source told the newspaper that a relative of Evans, 61, was told by the collector: ‘I have it’.
There is no suggestion that Evans, who is said to be living in Wales, acquired Moore’s shirt illegally or improperly.
In a statement to The Sun, Tina and Roberta said: ‘It seems Mr Evans is likely to have it or know where it is.
‘We’d implore him to tell us what he knows.’
Evans declined to comment.
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