Manchester United 1999 Treble Collection

All items acquired directly on site by Teddy Sheringham's Agent

No season in English football resonates quite like Manchester United's 1998-99 campaign. Coming off a year without silverware, the club produced one of the most astonishing runs in the sport's history, claiming the Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League in a single season. They became the first English side ever to accomplish that feat. The Premier League title was secured on the final day, by a single point over Arsenal. The FA Cup followed days later at Wembley. Then came Barcelona: trailing 1-0 to Bayern Munich with the clock running down, United scored twice in stoppage time to complete one of sport's most dramatic reversals. This collection draws directly from that season, comprising match-worn garments, signed items, commemorative objects, and unique one-of-a-kind pieces that together tell the full story of the Treble.

I. 1999 UEFA Champions League Ball | Attributed to Treble Winning Final Match | Signed by Goal Scorers Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Signed by Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, this ball comes from the most celebrated night in the club's modern history. At Camp Nou on May 26, 1999, United trailed Bayern Munich 1-0 when Sheringham swept in an equalizer in the 91st minute. Solskjaer stabbed in the winner moments later. Both goalscorers have signed this ball, making it among the most significant match balls in European football history. A direct artifact of the moment the Treble was sealed.

The ball is accompanied by a letter from James Spence Authentication in regards to signatures.

II. 1999 UEFA Champions League Final Team Signed After-Match Buffet Menu

One of the more unexpected and compelling items in the collection: the official buffet menu from the post-match celebration dinner, signed by the full Manchester United squad. The menu is signed by David Beckham, Peter Schmeichel, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, and others. The menu itself lists items including medallions of beef with sauce bordelaise and marinated vegetables on silver. What it documents is the private mood of a team that had just completed something no English club had done before. 

The menu is accompanied by a letter from James Spence Authentication in regards to signatures.

III. Teddy Sheringham 1999 FA Cup Final Match-Issued Shirt | Championship-Clinching Goal | Man of the Match

Worn on May 22, 1999, at Wembley Stadium in United's 2-0 victory over Newcastle United. Roy Keane went off injured early in the match, and Sheringham entered as his replacement. Within seconds of coming on, Andy Cole drove forward and found Sheringham inside the box; he turned his defender and slotted the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Steve Harper. Sheringham was named Man of the Match. 

IV. Teddy Sheringham 1999 FA Cup Final Warm-Up Jacket | Championship-Clinching Goal | Man of the Match

The warm-up jacket worn by Sheringham on the same occasion. Paired with the match shirt above, these two items together offer a complete record of one of the season's defining individual performances.

V. Official Manchester United 1999 Treble Season Commemorative Coin Set | Franklin Mint | Limited Edition | .999 Fine Silver, 24ct Gold Plated

A set of four commemorative coins produced exclusively by Franklin Mint to mark the Treble. Each coin is one troy ounce of .999 fine silver, plated in 24-carat gold, and measures 38mm in diameter. The obverse of each is inscribed with "One Troy Ounce THE TREBLE .999 fine silver 1998-1999" and the Manchester United club badge. The reverses depict the three trophies (FA Cup, European Cup, and Premier League) along with a coin bearing the image of manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Includes the original certificate of authenticity. Housed in the original red velvet presentation box (18 x 11cm), the club crest embossed on the interior lid.

VI. 1999 Treble Season Manchester United Full Squad-Signed Ball

A match ball bearing signatures from the complete first-team squad, including David Beckham, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole, Peter Schmeichel, Jaap Stam, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and Teddy Sheringham, among others. The official Manchester United logo appears on the ball. With Schmeichel departing at season's end and Stam following two years later, this squad never played together again as a unit. 

The ball is accompanied by a letter from James Spence Authentication in regards to signatures.

VII. 1999 Treble Season Old Trafford Match-Used Turf

A section of match-used turf from Old Trafford, harvested from the 1998-99 season and presented in a limited edition wooden frame under plexi. Among the most singular items in the collection: a physical remnant of the ground on which the league title was won. United clinched the Premier League at Old Trafford on the final day, coming from behind against Tottenham Hotspur with goals from Beckham and Andy Cole to finish one point clear of Arsenal.

Going Deeper | Manchester United's Treble Season, 1998-99

To understand what the 1998-99 season meant, it helps to understand what came before it. The previous year, United had finished without a trophy for the first time in four seasons, runners-up in the league to Arsenal and eliminated from the Champions League at the group stage. Ferguson responded by signing Dutch defender Jaap Stam for a club-record fee and Dwight Yorke from Aston Villa, a transfer many observers questioned at the time. By November, Yorke and Andy Cole had formed one of the most intuitive striking partnerships English football had seen. They seemed to think in the same rhythm, exchanging passes in tight spaces, rotating positions, finishing with a shared fluency that made the whole thing look unrehearsed.

The league title race ran to the final day. Arsenal, the reigning champions, pushed United every step of the way. At Old Trafford on May 16, United trailed Tottenham Hotspur at half-time before Beckham equalized and Cole chipped in a second. The margin at the top of the table was a single point. Six days later, the FA Cup final at Wembley was more comfortable on paper, 2-0 over Newcastle, but the circumstances were not: Keane, United's captain and driving force, went off injured inside the first ten minutes. Sheringham replaced him and scored within moments of stepping onto the pitch. Scholes added the second. United had two legs of the Treble.

What happened in Barcelona on May 26 has been replayed and re-examined for more than two decades, and it still resists easy description. Bayern Munich had controlled the match almost entirely, leading through Mario Basler's early free-kick and hitting the woodwork twice in the second half. With the clock deep into stoppage time, United were minutes from elimination. Then Sheringham turned in a corner. Then Solskjaer, arriving at the back post, stabbed in a second. The Camp Nou, largely filled with United supporters, erupted. Ferguson, watching from the touchline, described the feeling afterward as barely real.

What made this squad unusual was its internal range. Schmeichel was one of the great goalkeepers of his generation, imperious and commanding, but he retired at the season's end. Keane, who missed the final through suspension, was later asked about the night in Barcelona and said he could not fully enjoy it, having not been able to play. Beckham, who took the corner for the first goal, finished runner-up for the Ballon d'Or. Giggs, whose solo goal against Arsenal in the FA Cup semifinal replay remains one of the most watched in the competition's history, was at the peak of his powers at 25. The squad had depth, personality, and a collective stubbornness that showed most clearly when things went wrong.

Only eight clubs in European football have ever completed a continental treble. Of those, fewer still did it in a single campaign defined by such persistent adversity. United conceded the opening goal in both the FA Cup final and the Champions League final, and won both. They won the league by the narrowest possible margin, on the last possible day. The 1998-99 season was not a procession. It was, almost by definition, a fight to the end.