Manchester United buys Stiles' World Cup medal

Posted Thursday, October 28, 2010 by YAHOO Sport

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP)—The World Cup medal won by England's Nobby Stiles in 1966 was bought for 188,200 pounds ($298,000) by his former club Manchester United on Wednesday.

The fee is the highest yet for a World Cup medal, surpassing the 165,000 pounds paid five years ago for another 1966 winners' medal owned by Alan Ball.

England won its first and only world title in 1966 by beating West Germany 4-2 in extra time.

Manchester United also put in a winning bid of 49,402 pounds for a European Cup winners' medal, which Stiles won with the club in 1968. He played 395 times for United from 1960 to '71.

“We're delighted to have acquired these items, which possess tremendous historical significance for Manchester United and English football, and look forward to proudly displaying them in our museum,” United said in a statement.

The 68-year-old Stiles, who is recovering from a mild stroke, raised a total of 424,438 pounds for his family from 45 lots at the auction in Edinburgh.

“If you had walked in to my dad's house you would never have known what he had done,” Stiles' son John was quoted as saying by the BBC. “The shirts were in the loft and the medals were in the bank. Nobody ever saw them. So he was going to sell them sooner or later, but he was poorly in the summer and that speeded up the process.”