Photo thought to be the first to show Everton goalscoring legend Dixie Dean in a football kit to be auctioned

Sep 9 2009 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

Dixie Dean with other members of Birkenhead Boys' Club in the 1920-21 season. The photo is believed to be the first picture of Tranmere/Everton legend Dixie wearing any kind of football kit _460

IS this the first photo of Wirral goal-scoring legend Dixie Dean in a football kit?

The picture postcard shows the Birkenhead Boys’ team in the 1920-21 season, with Dixie centre-front.

Appropriately for a man who went on to score 349 goals for Everton – including 60 in one season – the ball is at his feet. Dean, who was born on January 22, 1907, would have been 13 or 14 at the time.

He started his senior career with Tranmere Rovers in the 1923-24 season and signed for Everton in 1925.

The picture is expected to fetch up to £800 at a sports memorabilia auction in association with Sotheby’s in London on October 28.

It follows the discovery last month of the earliest-known photograph of Dean in an Everton strip, which will be sold at the same auction.

Graham Budd, of Graham Budd Auctioneers, said: “I can only imagine that this was a small, local boys’ team and the picture was probably commissioned by one of the parents, meaning only a handful were ever produced. It’s a wonderful postcard and you can see Dixie clearly at the front.

“He has the ball at his feet so he could have been the captain of the team.

It might well be the earliest image we have of him in any kind of footballing context, although I’m happy to be proved wrong!”