Football fans will be eager to snap up some memorabilia belonging to the late Gary Shaw, who played for Aston Villa during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The collection is to be sold at auction and includes Shaw’s 1982 European Cup winners medal and his 1981 Football League Championship medal, both of which are expected to fetch around £50,000. Ben Jones of Mullock Jones Auctioneers & Valuers, which is selling the memorabilia, said: “Gary Shaw was an integral part of Aston Villa’s history and a cherished figure in English football.”
Shaw joined Aston Villa early in the 1978-79 season and was the team’s top scorer in 1979-80. He was also named the Professional Footballers’ Association Young Player of the Year in 1981 and the European Young Player of the Year in 1982. Shaw went on to play for Blackpool, Walsall, Kilmarnock and Shrewsbury Town. After retiring from football in 1992, he began a career as a statistical analyst, and later became an ambassador for Aston Villa. He died in September after injuries sustained in a fall. Crowds gathered at Villa Park for his funeral procession in October.
The auction, which takes place on 5 December, includes other interesting items such as Shaw’s PFA Young Player of the Year trophy. When Villa won their European Cup in 1982, beating Bayern Munich in the final, it was the first time a British team had won the competition since 1978. Although Shaw’s career was relatively short, his goals will be long remembered by Villa fans, as the club had not won a trophy for 25 years at the time of their European Cup victory. The auctioneers describe Shaw as “a cherished figure in English football”, and it is likely that his memorabilia will be highly sought-after.
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