The last thing that comes to people's minds when mentioning Mdina is football.

Even when the Mdina Knights FC was formed by a group of university students in 2006, they were not aware that in the past the Silent City had its own football teams that took part in national competitions. “This was quite understandable because the team had last taken part in such leagues way back in 1982,” Joe Vella, Mdina Knights FC committee president, said.

Last season Mdina Knights FC made it to the Malta Football Association’s second division, inspiring the idea for an exhibition of memorabilia of Mdina football teams from 1938 to 2013.

The timing of the team’s promotion ties in with 75th year since the late Paolino Farrugia wore his original football jersey for Notabile United – one of the first teams formed in the 1930s after the football ground beneath the bastions was built.

In the 1930s the team’s meeting place was the Circolo Alphonso Re d'Aragona, the fine building outside Mdina known as Casino Notabile. The set of jerseys – the only one left is Mr Farrugia’s from 1938 – was bought from Muscat's (Savoy) in Valletta for the princely sum of £1.1s.8d, equivalent to €2.52 in today's currency.

This exhibition traces the history of football in the Silent City from Mr Farrugia’s 1938 jersey to the present day.

Getting memorabilia from the 1970s and 1980s was easy, but Mr Vella had the painstaking task of tracing the club’s history to the 1930s by scouring the Times of Malta archives and having long conversations with former players.

The free exhibition, funded by the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector, includes a 15-minute audiovisual covering the teams’ history as well as an interactive PowerPoint show where visitors can view results, scorers and league tables.

Visitors can see the collection at the Corte Capitanale, Misraħ il-Kunsill, Mdina, between 10am and 1pm, and 4pm and 7pm until Saturday.