Seven of the eight McCarthy items above are South Africa shirts numbered 17, from 2002-04 and 2004-06. The eighth is a 2012-13 Wigan Athletic away shirt numbered 4 — that is James McCarthy, a different player, caught by the surname search.
McCarthy’s most productive English years were at Blackburn Rovers, where he scored 37 goals in 109 league games between 2006 and 2010. No Blackburn shirt of his is in the listing. Nor is anything from Ajax, Celta Vigo, Porto — where he won the Champions League in 2004, the only South African to do so — West Ham United or Orlando Pirates.
The 2002-04 kit is the deepest group, with both home and away versions and sizes from S to XXL. Condition grades run from 5/10 to 9/10. McCarthy won 79 caps and scored 31 goals for South Africa between 1997 and 2012, making him his country’s all-time leading scorer, so the shirts here come from the middle of that run rather than its start or finish.
Number 17 on a South Africa shirt of this era is him. A Wigan shirt numbered 4 is not. The wider stock carries well over a hundred South Africa items and a couple of hundred Blackburn items, most without his name.
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