More than 40 years after Alan Sunderland scored one of the most famous goals in FA Cup final history, the celebrations have started again.
His winner’s medal from the epic game in 1979 has sold for £21,000 – double what it was expected to fetch.
The Arsenal striker scored the last-minute winner as his team beat Manchester United 3-2 at Wembley.
Arsenal were 2-0 up with five minutes left, but United netted twice in three minutes. With extra-time looming, Sunderland stretched to convert a cross then launched into a memorable celebration.
The former England player said in 2019 he was considering selling the medal to “make life a little easier”.
His two FA Cup runners-up medals – among his other items also sold by Graham Budd Auctions in London – fetched £9,000 in total.
Sunderland, 69, who now lives on the island of Gozo in Malta, also played for Wolves and Ipswich Town.
Sir Bobby Charlton’s boyhood Bible has also been sold for £2,200.
Irene Wright, of Prestwich, Gtr Manchester, had bought it at a jumble sale in the 1980s. She said: “I’m not a football [fan] so I didn’t know who it had belonged to.”
Sir Bobby wrote the name of his teacher, Miss Hope, on the inside cover of the Bible, which has been sold by Graham Budd Auctions.
Man United hero Sir Bobby, 84, was a World Cup winner in 1966.
It comes after the world record £7.1million sale of Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” shirt.
Experts said the 1986 World Cup strip of the Argentina legend deserved the price tag because of its place in history.
It made ex-England ace Steve Hodge, who owned the jersey having swapped it with Maradona after his team’s quarter final defeat, an instant multi-millionaire.
Hodge, 59, decided to cash in on by selling the shirt at Sotheby’s.
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It became the most valuable piece of memorabilia in sporting history, beating the original Olympic manifesto, written in 1892, which sold for £7m three years ago.
However, the shirt worn by Sir Geoff Hurst as he netted a hat-trick to win England their only World Cup failed to sell at auction in 2016.
Expected to fetch up to £500,000, Sotheby’s said the bidding failed to meet the reserve price despite “a great deal of interest” from collectors.
Tina Moore, the first wife of England captain Bobby Moore, who died from cancer in 1993 aged 51, sold his memorabilia to West Ham in 2000, reportedly for more than £1.4m.
And Sir Geoff also received about £150,000 when he sold his World Cup medal to the Hammers in 2001.
