Liverpool's Smith selling medals (From Worcester News)

Liverpool's Smith selling medals

2:39pm Friday 10th February 2012 in National News © Press Association 2011

Veteran footballer Tommy Smith is auctioning off all the medals from his career with Liverpool Football Club.

Smith, who was known as the Anfield Iron, is putting his prized collection, which includes league title, FA Cup, Uefa Cup and European Cup winners' medals, up for auction with Bonhams.

There are 75 lots in total which are expected to generate in the region of £120,000.

There is also a full England International Cap, a record five Charity Shields, and 20 shirts worn in big games.

Smith, 66, told the Liverpool Echo: "I had a wonderful career but the memories I've got are more important to me than the medals and the shirts.

"I'm getting old and the money is of more use to me now than the medals. This is about me putting my family first."

Renowned for his uncompromising defensive style earning him a reputation as a hard man, manager Bill Shankly once said: "Tommy Smith wasn't born, he was quarried."

Smith joined Liverpool as a schoolboy in May 1960 and made his debut on May 8 1963. In 1965, he started to feature more regularly and was an integral part of the Liverpool side which won the FA Cup for the first time in the club's history.

By the time that he left Liverpool in 1978, he had made 638 appearances, winning four League titles, two FA Cups, two Uefa Cups and the European Cup.

The medal collection will go under the hammer in the Sporting Memorabilia sale at Bonhams' Chester saleroom on February 22.