'My 1966 World Cup collection is part of social history'

As another World Cup draws to a close, England's wait for a major trophy continues.

For one Sheffield man, he can look back to the year when the country lifted the trophy and seek solace in his collection of memorabilia from the 1966 tournament.

Mark Watterson was born the year after England's only World Cup win, yet their victory has been his greatest passion in football.

His collection was inspired by a meeting with one of the heroes of 1966 at a Sheffield United match in 1980.

"I was sat in the director's box and just behind me was Geoff Hurst. I ended up talking to him about 1966. He was really pleasant. I was just a 13-year-old boy but it snowballed from there."

In the past 40 years, Watterson has acquired an array of items related to the World Cup triumph.

Tickets from every game England played before the final against West Germany are filed away neatly next to a programme from the final itself, which was picked up at a collectors' fair at Bramall Lane in 1983.

One match ticket from the quarter-final win against Argentina is even rarer as the ticket was actually unused.

"A guy got in touch with me and he'd been to the match but his brother who was meant to travel across London to meet him that day, never made it so he kept the ticket in his pocket," he explains.

Another poignant item within the collection is a replica England shirt from the final. It was signed by the 10 remaining players shortly after the man that lifted the trophy, Bobby Moore, passed away in 1993.

Now hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst is the only surviving member of the winning squad.

Watterson, 58, has met several of the players over the years, and became close to Gerry Byrne.

The Liverpool legend, who broke his collarbone in the 1965 FA Cup final, never played during the tournament, but as a member of the squad got to celebrate with his team-mates on the Wembley turf.

"He told me a brilliant story that a police officer didn't realise he was a player and in one of the famous photos you can see him in the background arguing about it."

Byrne gifted Watterson his England kit bag, an official badge and even a moneybox showing the 1966 mascot, 'World Cup Willy'.

"He told me, 'I've had this lying around my house for 40 years, I know you're a 1966 collector so it's more use to you than me'."

Over the years Watterson has continued to collect England programmes, managing to pick up every once since 1951, and he has also travelled the world to tick off some of the most famous stadiums.

"I've been to 212 different football grounds. I've been to all the big ones. I've been to AC Milan, I've been to Bayern Munich, Barcelona and PSG."

While Watterson recognises that his collection is "very valuable", he is keen to stress it is also heavily insured and "hidden in different places".

So why has he spent most of his adult life searching for 1966 memorabilia?

"It's part of social history. These things mean something."

He is also considering what may happen to his life's collection when he is no longer around to curate it.

"I've got a son who's quite interested. I do find though that the younger people don't have the same interest. Although it's interesting stuff, it's just stuff."

He also feels the collection is unlikely to grow with the acquisition of further items.

"I always say we're all caretakers of these things. It's been kept by me for now but it'll move on to somebody else."

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