Bobby Moore's lost 1966 World Cup shirt worth £1m tracked down to Wales after going missing for 30 years

11/24/2024 05:00 PM

ENGLAND skipper Bobby Moore's missing 1966 World Cup-winning shirt has turned up in Wales, it was claimed last night.

The red No6 jersey, worth £1million-plus, was last seen at ex-wife Tina's Essex home 30 years ago and she wants it returned.

A source says Britain's biggest collector of footie memorabilia told a relative: "I have it".

Skipper Bobby wore the red No6 top as he lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy at Wembley.

It was last seen in Tina's Essex attic 30 years ago and is now said to be worth more than £1million.

The source told us a relative of tyre tycoon Neville Evans, 61, had confided four months ago that the jersey is part of his National Football Shirt Collection.

They added the relative has seen the shirt.

They said: "He showed me a clipping of a Sun article about the shirt last year (April 2023), and he said 'Neville has got that shirt'."

Tina, wed to Bobby from 1962-86, and daughter Roberta said: "We are incredibly grateful to The Sun for taking up the challenge.

"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, who lives in a £2m mansion in West Wales, co-authored a book last year, Three Lions on a Shirt: The Official History of the England Football Jersey.

Many pictures were taken from shirts in his collection.

Before publishing, the FA contacted Tina to say Bobby's shirt would be pictured.

But it set off legal letters from Bobby's family and the jersey was replaced in the book with Sir Geoff Hurst's No10 jersey.

Co-author Daren Burney said at the time: "We are saddened our discovery of Bobby's shirt has caused the Moore family distress."

He added cryptically that the shirt "is no longer under the same ownership and we can categorically state we have no idea where the shirt is now or who owns it".

But there was never any record of a sale or auction.

Evans is a well-respected dealer of sporting memorabilia and there is no suggestion he acquired the shirt illegally.

A female employee at his office gave no comment.

Evans said the same at his home the next day.

Tina added: "Bobby's shirt may be one of the most iconic in British sporting history, but for Roberta and me it is an intensely personal reminder of the Bobby we loved deeply and everything he stood for.

"He was a loving husband and father, a gentleman as well as a leader.

"He wore the shirt on that unforgettable day having fought his own private battle with testicular cancer.

"Very few people realised the agony he had been through.

"He became a national hero that day, but he was already our hero and our Bobby.

"Bobby gave it to me along with all his memorabilia.

"It was a truly special gift and it clearly meant a lot to him that I should have it.”