A SILVER cigarette case presented to England international and Saints legend Edgar “Hooky” Chadwick, just a few weeks before he joined Southampton in the summer of 1900, sold for £7,500 at auction - triple the sum it had been expected to fetch at auction

The case, with an engraved enamel decoration of a football match, was made in Austria in 1900 and is engraved: “Presented to Mr Edgar Chadwick as a memento of friendship, gratitude and high esteem from the Deutscher FussballClub May 1900.”

A few weeks later Chadwick joined Southampton, then a non league club, and in his first season at The Dell he helped them win the Southern League title, with 14 goals.

In his second season Chadwick helped the Saints reach the 1902 FA Cup final, scoring three of the Saints goals en route to the final, against Sheffield United, at the Crystal Palace.

Chadwick, born at Blackburn and Saints’ inside left, was affectionately nicknamed ‘Hooky’ because his trick was to run with the ball parallel with the goal line, drawing the goalkeeper in the direction of the post and then hooking the ball into the opposite corner of the net.

In their book,The Alphabet Of The Saints, A Complete Who’s Who of Southampton FC, authors Duncan Holley and Gary Chalk say of Hooky Chadwick: “His left wing partnership with Alf Milward (renewed from their Everton days) was an outstanding feature of the club’s success story during the first two seasons of the (twentieth) century.” After he quit playing Chadwick was appointed manager of the Dutch national team and did that job for five years,f . He later managed Dutch clubs, Vitesse Arnhem and Sparta Rotterdam before returning to Blackburn as a baker.

Then he returned to his native Blackburn and became a baker again,the job he originally did. He died aged 72 when he died in Blackburn i in1942.

Before the sale, at Graham Budd Auctions in London Mr Chadwick’s cigarette case had been expected to fetch between £2,000 and £2,500,but,in the end,it was snapped up by a mystery bidder for £7,500.