April 19 (Bloomberg) -- Alan Ball will sell his winner's medal from soccer's 1966 World Cup through London-based auctioneer Christie's next month and split the proceeds among his three children to help secure their financial futures.

The medal may fetch as much as 120,000 pounds ($229,400), Christie's said in a statement. Also included in the May 19 sale will be Ball's tournament cap from the 1966 showpiece, which has an estimate of 15,000-25,000 pounds, and medals from two domestic soccer tournaments that may raise a further 8,000 pounds.

``It's always going to be impossible to split a medal three ways,'' Ball, the youngest member of the England team, said in the statement. ``Winning the World Cup in 1966 will stay with me forever, but it's time to look to the future, not the past.''

Ball will become the fourth member of England's World Cup- winning side to put his medal in an auction. Right-back George Cohen's failed to sell in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1998, while goalkeeper Gordon Banks's memento raised a record 124,750 pounds at a 2001 auction. Left-back Ray Wilson's medal made 80,750 pounds in 2002.

Bobby Moore, who captained the side and died of cancer in 1993 aged 51, sold his medal as part of a package to his former club West Ham in 2000 in a private sale negotiated by Christie's for an undisclosed amount.

Ball, who will turn 60 a week before the sale, was 21 when England won the four-yearly World Cup at London's Wembley Stadium, beating West Germany 4-2 in the final. The midfielder played 72 times for England in an international career that spanned 10 years. Ball has two daughters, Mandy and Keely, and a son, Jimmy. His wife Lesley, to whom he was married for 37 years, died in 2004 from ovarian cancer.

F.A. Cup

Also included in the sale will be the second F.A. Cup, which Christie's estimates will make a record 300,000 pounds. The oldest existing version of the trophy is ``considered to be the most important item of football memorabilia ever offered at auction,'' Christie's head of sporting memorabilia David Convery said.

``To offer a 1966 World Cup winner's medal and the F.A. Cup in our May sale demonstrates the continued growth of the sporting memorabilia market,'' Convery said.

Christie's estimate for the trophy, if reached, would eclipse the soccer memorabilia record set by the 1997 sale for 254,500 pounds of a replica of the Jules Rimet trophy -- the original World Cup, which had been stolen. That compares with the $3 million paid for the baseball Mark McGwire hit for his record 70th home run in 1998 and the $1.27 million paid in December for a bat used by baseball's Babe Ruth.

The 18-inch F.A. Cup trophy has been in private hands for 95 years since the Football Association gave it to Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird as a reward for serving as chairman of English soccer's ruling body for 33 years. The cup has remained in Kinnaird's family since.

Fourth Edition

The trophy replaced the original, won by Wanderers at the first final in 1872, which was stolen from a Birmingham shop window in 1895.

The F.A. Cup is a 134-year-old knockout tournament open to all professional and amateur teams in England. Manchester United will play Arsenal in this year's May 21 final. The winner will receive the fourth edition of the cup, an exact copy of the third, which was retired in 1991 and now resides at the F.A.'s headquarters in London.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dex McLuskey in London at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 19, 2005 10:44 EDT