Countless generations of football followers have grown up being told the tale of how the Manchester City shot-stopper broke his neck in the 1956 FA Cup Final, but played on and carried on making brave saves to help his team to a 3-1 victory. Fewer folk beyond the borough know that Trautmann’s football career started in St Helens.

Today Town will play a Manchester City Legends team to commemorate the 60th anniversary of his transfer to Maine Road and this week speaking to Mike Critchley at the St Helens Star newspaper from his home in Valencia, Spain, Trautmann revealed that the town of St Helens and the football club where he started still have a special place in his heart.

Trautmann came to England after being captured by the Allies during World War II and was held as a prisoner of war at Northwich and then Ashton-in-Makerfield. On his release in March 1948, Trautmann spurned repatriation and began playing for St Helens Town. He became a popular figure – and crowds boomed at Hoghton Road with him between the posts. The warm feelings are mutual.

Trautmann said: “I will always have such fond memories of St Helens in my heart. If I had to write a CV my time there would be at the top of the list.

“St Helens gave me a new life. The war and the subsequent three years as a POW took eight years out of my life.”

“When I came out of the POW camp I was welcomed into a beautiful community in Sutton. It was a mining district – miners are the same the world over and very warm-hearted and the people took to me.”

Crowds at Town’s matches boomed, with numbers on the terraces rocketing from 300 to 6,000 allowing the club to develop their ground with the proceeds.

“The club were very kind to me,” Trautmann added, “and at Christmas 1948 I was called to a meeting. When I arrived the 10 members of the committee sat me down and explained the predicament of the club and how times were hard.”

“They then presented me with a trunk weighing about 70 kilos, which was packed with everything. Gave me an envelope with £50 in it, which was an awful lot of money back then. It was a sign of my acceptance.”

Trautmann was fully integrated into the St Helens sporting scene and even trained up at Knowsley Road, home of St Helens Rugby League Club and now St Helens Town.

“Some of the Saints players were friends – especially Stan McCormick, who had just joined from Belle Vue Rangers and I would regularly train with him.”

“St Helens motorcyclist Geoff Duke, who went on to win the World Championship six times, was another personal friend. I had a great life there.”

Trautmann met and later married the club secretary’s daughter Margaret Friar and credits the time he spent here as being a big part of his learning curve about life. He said: “My first father-in-law Jack Friar was a real gentleman and had a real effect on my life and was like a father to me.”

But his performances were catching the eye, particularly during the 1948-49 season – and within months of the start of the following season Trautmann was snapped up on a free transfer by Manchester City.

There were protests when Trautmann first started playing in front of the big post war crowds in the English first division – and some City fans even returned their season tickets. But Trautmann’s ability and personality managed to win them over, although he has his own theory.

“It was not my ability or my performances that ‘won them over’. I love people and would always go out and talk to people outside the ground. I think my education really started when I came to England.”

His signing for City led to a long and successful career which lasted more than 500 games until 1964 – and from there his managerial stint took him from Stockport County to Burma, Liberia and Pakistan. But he did not sever his connections with Town and the borough and although he cannot make it back for today’s game, he is happy to endorse the Bert Trautmann Trophy.

He added: “A few months ago I met up with Town’s commercial manager Andrew Bilson-Page in Sale and he asked me if I could do anything to help the club.

“Now I told the club if I had made millions from playing football, like the players today, I would gladly have given them a million pounds to help them out. But football was different in the 1950s so instead I gave them some items to auction. St Helens Town will always have my best wishes.”

These items raised over £1000 at Town’s end of season Presentation Evening in May this year.