The Story Behind the Biggest Manchester City Collection
Well renowned collector Mark McCarthy boasts the biggest known collection of Manchester City match worn shirts which, at its peak, housed an incredible 605 original City match shirts. You have to transport back to December 1983, when aged just nine and on a visit to his grandfather's house, Mark was informed that his cousin Mick McCarthy would be signing for Manchester City. A love and devotion for all things City was kick started as Mark declared his dedication to the club.
Cousin Mick would go on to appear 157 times for City, collecting 57 caps for the Republic of Ireland along the way, during a career that also saw him represent Barnsley, Celtic, Lyon and Millwall. A move into management led him to Millwall, Sunderland, Wolves and Ipswich and also two spells as Ireland’s manager.
By age 14, Mark was regularly traveling to games on his own from his home in Milton Keynes, building his bond to the club. It was on these travels he would dream of tracing a shirt worn by cousin Mick. Once that dream was realised, it kicked off a fixation with collecting as Mark reminisced about the battles that shirt would have experienced before landing in his treasured possession.
Mark’s goal was to then trace at least one match worn shirt from every City season, and over the years he’s tracked down players, contacted families, followed endless leads while spending thousands of hours expanding his archive with the best of the best shirts he could find. His earliest shirt dates back nearly a century - a George Hicks FA Cup Final shirt from 1926 - but this wasn’t the hardest shirt to find. Manchester City’s 1989 away appearance against Arsenal baffled fans when they sported an all-yellow kit which was designed for a match against Sheffield Wednesday and had to be used as back up. After a 4-0 loss the City Chairman demanded it to be never worn again and it was rumoured he ordered it to be burned. After years of searching, Mark finally found one of these infamous shirts in 2020 and didn’t sleep until it was safely in his hands.
As the collection grew, fellow collectors and former players would come to him to offer rare pieces. Personal favourites include Bill Sowden’s shiny 1953 floodlit debut shirt and iconic City legend Colin Bell’s 1973/74 kit, both of which will be up for auction this May 6th - giving fellow Blues and collectors a unique opportunity to own some truly iconic City shirts.
With a collection that spans decades and touches nearly every era of City’s fabric shirt history, Mark has become a well-respected name in the world of football memorabilia, releasing two books on the subject. His collection serves as a reminder of how important it is to keep the history of your favourite team alive.
Does he think the collection could ever be fully completed? Maybe not, as “there’s always another holy grail to find”. Mark, who will carry on curating a dedicated selection, feels the timing is now right for him to take a step back and give others the chance to build their own collections, or even start a new one, with the opportunity to own some serious Manchester City footballing shirt history.
