CALLS are being made to keep a piece of North-East footballing memorabilia in the North-East. Andrian Worsley looks back at the player they called the Golden Boy - Wilf Mannion

FOR all the luck it brought him, it's perhaps not surprising that the North-East's Golden Boy did not keep hold of his World Cup cap.

Toiling on a bog of a pitch, the hopes of England rested on Wilf Mannion's shoulders.

Setting up chance after chance for his misfiring forwards - the legendary Stan Mortenson among them - Middlesbrough's Mannion was made the scapegoat by a Press hungry for blood after the humiliating defeat by World Cup minnows the US.

Never mind the fact that the same Press had clamoured for his inclusion in the team, or that he scored a vital goal in the 1950 Brazil tournament's opening game against Chile.

Now 52 years after that campaign - and as modern-day England embark on another - the Boro hero's World Cup cap goes under the hammer at Sotheby's in London.

Expecting to fetch at least £3,000, his beloved club are making moves to bring the reminder of soccer's Golden Age back to the region.

The blue-green cap, bearing a long white tassel and with World Cup 1950 Tournament stitched on the peak, had been gathering dust at an anonymous fan's house for years.

Mannion's family are now hopeful the cap will soon take its rightful place at the BT Cellnet Riverside Stadium.

His son, Wilf Jnr, believes the cap, one of 26 he earned, may have found its way to Sotheby's via a friend of his father.

He said: "I'm sure that this cap was probably given to a mate of his years ago. As for my dad's World Cup goal, my memory was jogged last time England played them. Then the commentator said he scored against them in 1950."

While not exactly bulging with silverware, the corridors of power at Middlesbrough FC are nonetheless resplendent with memorabilia. According to club officials, this cap would take pride of place with the other three they have, loaned by Mannion's family.

A club spokesman said: "We have a display cabinet of international caps and shirts, from Tim Williamson in the early part of the last century to Ugo Ehiogu's against Italy last month.

"It would be sad for this type of item to fall into the hands of private collectors."

The cap, along with a vast collection of Newcastle United and Gateshead FC programmes, will go under the hammer at Sotheby's in London on May 17.