Cap of NI hero ‘mighty Quinn’ goes under hammer
A NORTHERN Ireland international cap awarded to Belfast-born Jimmy Quinn is expected to fetch between £600 and £800 at auction next week.
The striker is best known for scoring the goal against Romania in 1985 that helped Northern Ireland qualify for the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico.
The cap was awarded during the 1986-1987 season — possi- bly for the Euro 1988 qualifier against England at Wembley on October 15, 1986, or for the qualifier against Turkey in Izmir on November 12 the same year.
He would have been around 26 at the time, and was playing for Blackburn Rovers at this stage of his career.
Quinn scored 12 goals in his 46 appearance for Northern Ireland.
One of the most memorable was undoubtedly that strike in the 1-0 win against the Romanians in Bucharest on October 16, 1985.
This key victory, followed up by a scoreless draw against the English at Wembley, secured Northern Ireland’s qualification for the 1986 World Cup finals, a second successive finals appearance for Billy Bingham’s team following Spain 1982.
The sale of Quinn’s Northern Ireland cap (right ), at Graham Budd Auctions in London next Tuesday, will come just four days before the former player’s 58th birthday. Quinn, who also turned out for Swindon, Leicester City, Bradford City, West Ham Utd, Bournmouth, Reading, Peterborough Utd and Shrewsbury Town during his 19-year career, lives in Crewe in Cheshire.
Last month he brought his children to Northern Ireland for the first time in what he described to the Belfast Telegraph as a “very emotional” trip.