Best's shirt goes for £24,000

Published on Thursday 14 September 2006 01:45

A MANCHESTER United jersey worn by the late George Best during one of his greatest games sold for £24,000 at auction yesterday.

Best came back from a six-week suspension to score six goals in Manchester United's 8-2 demolition of Northampton in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 1970.

The jersey he was wearing that day was sold as part of a football memorabilia auction at Christie's in London.

The match was one of the most extraordinary played by Best, who died last year. He was being marked by Roy Fairfax, who said later: "The closest I got to him was when we shook hands after the game."

The shirt was won by the seller in a national newspaper competition in 1996 but, after a fierce bidding battle, it was bought by an anonymous buyer.

Elsewhere in the sale, the European Cup winner's medal presented to Celtic's John Hughes in 1967 failed to reach its reserve price.

Hughes did not play in the final in Lisbon against Internazionale but Celtic commissioned three exact replicas and presented one to Hughes. Christie's had estimated the medal's value at between 1,500 and 2,000.

A gold medal presented to Hughes for winning the 1959-60 Reserve League and Reserve League Cup with Celtic fetched 456 at the auction.

Ten lots connected to Jerry Dawson, the late Rangers and Scotland goalkeeper, sold for a total of 7,176. The top lot was an international cap won by Dawson in season 1938-39, which sold for 1,140 to an anonymous phone bidder.