Stanley Matthews

Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing football, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards. His nicknames included "The Wizard of the Dribble" and "The Magician".

Matthews kept fit enough to play at the top level until he was 50 years old. He was also the oldest player ever to play in England's top football division (50 years and 5 days) and the oldest player ever to represent the country (42 years and 104 days). He was an inaugural inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 to honour his contribution to the English game.

Matthews spent 19 years with Stoke City, playing for the Potters from 1932 to 1947, and again from 1961 to 1965. He helped Stoke to the Second Division title in 1932–33 and 1962–63. Between his two spells at Stoke he spent 14 years with Blackpool, where, after being on the losing side in the 1948 and 1951 FA Cup finals, he helped Blackpool to win the cup with a formidable personal performance in the " Matthews Final" of 1953. In 1956, he was named the winner of the inaugural Ballon d'Or, a prize given to the best European footballer each year. Between 1934 and 1957, he won 54 caps for England, playing in the FIFA World Cup in 1950 and 1954, and winning nine British Home Championship titles.

Following an unsuccessful stint as Port Vale's general manager between 1965 and 1968, he travelled around the world, coaching enthusiastic amateurs. The most notable of his coaching experiences came in 1975 in South Africa, where in spite of the harsh apartheid laws of the time he established an all-black team in Soweto known as "Stan's Men".

Family and early life

Stanley Matthews was born on 1 February 1915 in a terraced house in Seymour Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. He was the third of four sons born to Jack Matthews, a local boxer known as the "Fighting Barber of Hanley". In the summer of 1921, Jack Matthews took six-year-old Stanley to the Victoria Ground, home of the local club Stoke City, for an open race for boys under the age of 14, with a staggered start according to age. His father placed a bet on his son winning, and he did. Matthews attended Hanley's Wellington Road School, and later described himself as "in many respects a model pupil". He also said the kickabout games the children played helped to improve his dribbling, and prepared the children for future life by giving them "a focus, a purpose, discipline, and in many respects an escape". At home he also spent "countless hours" practising dribbling around kitchen chairs he placed in his backyard.

Though he would later become indelibly associated with Stoke City, Matthews grew up supporting that club's local rivals Port Vale. His father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a boxer, but Stanley decided at the age of 13 that he wanted to be a footballer. After a rigorous training session that made Matthews vomit, his mother, Elizabeth, stood firm and made Jack realise that his son, who had one more year at school, should follow his passion of football. His father conceded that should he be picked for England Schoolboys then he could continue his footballing career; around this time his school football master picked Matthews as an outside-right, rather than as his then-preferred position of centre-half. Matthews played for England Schoolboys against Wales in 1929, in front of around 20,000 spectators at Dean Court, Bournemouth.

Playing career

Stoke City

Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City, Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion were all rumoured to be interested in Matthews in the wake of his appearance for England Schoolboys. The Stoke City manager Tom Mather persuaded Matthews' father to allow Stanley to join his club's staff as an office boy on his 15th birthday for pay of £1 a week. Matthews played for Stoke's reserve team during the 1930–31 season, coming up first against Burnley. After the game his father gave his usual realist assessment: "I've seen you play better and I've seen you play worse".

Matthews played 22 reserve games in 1931–32, shunning the social scene to focus on improving his game. In one of these games, against Manchester City, he attempted to run at the left-back and take him on with a deft swerve as the defender committed himself to a challenge, rather than follow the accepted wisdom of the day which was to first wait for the defender to run at the attacker – his new technique "worked a treat". The national press were already predicting a bright future for the teenager, and though he could have then joined any club in the country, he signed as a professional with Stoke on his 17th birthday. Paid the maximum wage of £5 a week (£3 in the summer break), he was on the same wage as seasoned professionals before he even kicked a ball. Despite this his father insisted that Matthews save this money, and only spend any winning bonus money he earned. He made his first team debut against Bury at Gigg Lane on 19 March 1932; the "Potters" won the game 1–0 and Matthews learned how physical and dirty opponents could be – and get away with it.

After spending the 1932–33 pre-season training intensely by himself (as opposed to playing golf with his teammates), Mather selected Matthews in 15 games, enough to earn him in a winners medal after Stoke were crowned Second Division champions, one point ahead of Tottenham Hotspur. On 4 March 1933 he scored his first senior goal in a 3–1 win over local rivals Port Vale at The Old Recreation Ground.

He played 29 First Division games in 1933–34, as Stoke secured their top-flight status with a 12th-place finish. Matthews added a Staffordshire Senior Cup winners' medal in 1934. He continued to progress in the 1934–35 campaign, and was selected by The Football League for an Inter-League game with the Irish League at The Oval, which finished 6–1 to the English. His England debut followed, and so did a further game for the Football League against the Scottish League. Stoke finished the season in 10th place.

In 1935–36 Matthews continued to improve, and he added the double body swerve technique to his increasing arsenal of tricks. Largely out of the international picture, he put in 45 games for the "Potters" as Stoke finished fourth under Bob McGrory – the club's best ever finish. He played 42 games in 1936–37, including the club's record 10–3 win over West Brom at the Victoria Ground. At the end of the season he was paid a loyalty bonus of £650, though the Stoke board initially insisted he was only due £500 as he had spent his first two years at the club as an amateur – this attitude left a sour taste in Matthews' mouth.

Stoke slipped down the league in an extremely tight 1937–38 season, and, annoyed by rumours circulating the city of resentment in the dressing room against him for his England success, Matthews requested a transfer in February; his request was denied. His request became public knowledge, and, disturbed by the attention and harassment he was receiving from Stoke supporters urging him to stay, Matthews decided to take a few days off from the club to relax in Blackpool. Finding no peace there either, Stoke chairman Albert Booth told Matthews he would not be allowed to leave the club, and 3,000 City supporters organized a meeting to make their feelings known – they too demanded that he stay. Touched by their strength of feeling and worn out by the attention he was receiving, Matthews agreed to stay. Despite playing regularly for the national side, Matthews put in 38 games for Stoke in 1938–39, helping them to a seventh-place finish – there would not be another full season of Football League action until 1946.

Wartime career

The war cost Matthews his professional career from the age of 24 to the age of 30. He instead joined the Royal Air Force, and was based just outside Blackpool, with Ivor Powell his NCO. He rose to the rank of corporal, though he admitted to being one of the most lenient and easy-going NCOs in the forces. He played 69 Wartime League and Cup games for Stoke, and also made 87 guest appearances for Blackpool. In addition to these, he also played a handful of games for Scottish sides Airdrieonians, Morton and Rangers, where he collected a Charity Cup winners' medal, and also played for Arsenal against FC Dynamo Moscow in extremely thick fog. He also played 29 times for England, though no caps were awarded as these were unofficial games. One of the last games of the period was an FA Cup Sixth Round second-leg tie clash between Stoke and Bolton Wanderers; the match ended in tragedy in what would be known as the Burnden Park disaster – 33 people died and 500 were injured. Matthews sent £30 to the disaster fund and couldn't bring himself to train for several days afterwards. Matthews' father died in 1945. From his deathbed he made his son promise him two things: to look after his mother, and to win an FA Cup Final.

Post-war resumption with Stoke

The regular Football League returned in time for the 1946–47 season, during which Matthews played 23 league games and was a major contributor to 30 of the club's 41 league goals. Stoke matched their record finish of fourth in the league, finishing just two points shy of champions Liverpool after losing to Sheffield United on the final day of the season. However, in February Matthews was returning from a knee injury when manager McGrory told him he was not in the first XI for the game against Arsenal; the press reported this as a bust-up. Relations between McGrory, the Stoke City board, and Matthews had indeed always been sour – though once again a story that the players sided against Matthews were untrue. Recalled against Brentford, only after the game did he find out that this was only because he was a last-minute replacement for an injured Bert Mitchell. Matthews put in a second transfer request, which the Stoke board eventually accepted. He selected Blackpool as his next club as he still lived in the area following his service in the RAF; the Stoke board sanctioned the move on the condition that the deal was to remain a secret until the end of the season, so as to not disrupt the club's title bid. The secret was revealed in a matter of hours, as an unknown person informed the press.

Blackpool

On 10 May 1947, immediately after a Great Britain versus Rest of Europe match in Glasgow (Britain won 6–1), he made the move for £11,500, at the age of 32. The match itself raised £30,000 for the four Home Nations Football Associations, and since the eleven British players received £14 each, Matthews questioned where exactly this money ended up – he doubted that much of it ended up as funding for grass-roots football.

:"You're 32, do you think you can make it for another couple of years?" – Blackpool manager Joe Smith in 1947.

Smith told Matthews "there are no shackles here ... express yourself ... play your own game and whatever you do on the pitch, do it in the knowledge that you have my full support." He assembled a talented frontline in Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Jimmy McIntosh