Soccer Stars VC Sells For Quarter Million Pounds
Victoria Cross makes a quarter million
The only Victoria Cross awarded to a professional soccer player was bought at auction by the Soccer Stars Union yesterday. The Professional Footballers Association purchased the famous medal which was awarded to Donald Bell for his heroic World War 1 deeds. The medal will be displayed at the National Football Museum in Manchester, England.
Donald Bell played for Newcastle United and Bradford Park Avenue FC before becoming the first soccer star to enlist to fight in the Great War. He began as a private in the 9th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment and rose to 2nd Lieutenant.
In 1916 at the Somme he ran across no-man’s-land under heavy fire, seized a machine gun and turned it on the enemy reportedly killing fifty of them. Bell who had been touted as a future England star was killed days later.
A spokesman for the PFA said the family had wanted the medal to stay in the country.
The medal was one of four VC’s that together fetched £756.000 at the London auction.q
Short URL: http://meggerman.com/?p=4755
Posted by Colin Brooks
on Nov 29 2010. Filed under Sports.
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