It is often the case that football supporters look on previous generations of players through rose-tinted glasses. Those that haven’t taken to a football pitch for decades or may not even still be alive are thought of as being the ‘best ever’, whilst those that currently play are somehow looked down upon. Whilst the lionisation of older players is often nonsensical, there are some former footballers that very much deserve their place in the pantheon of greats. Stanley Matthews is one such player, often considered to be one of the best players ever to lace on a pair of boots.
Starting Out
Stanley Matthews was born in the town of Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent on the first of February 1915. The third of four sons to a local boxer called Jack Matthews, whose nickname was the ‘Fighting Barber of Hanley’, Stanley was just a six-year-old when his father took him to the Victoria Ground, Stoke City’s home, in order to take part in an open race for boys under the age of 14. Such was Matthews senior’s confidence in his son to win the race, which featured staggered starts depending on age, he placed a bet on him to win and was rewarded by his son doing exactly that.
Stanley was considered to be a ‘model pupil’ at Hanley’s Wellington Road School, but it was the kickabouts with other students that he really enjoyed, giving him a chance to practice his dribbling skills and offering him something to focus on. At home, he would place the kitchen chairs in the yard and spend hours dribbling around them. As he grew up, he supported Port Vale and, in spite of his father’s attempts to get him to also become a boxer, he decided he wanted to be a footballer when he was a 13-year-old, with his father accepting that if he was chosen to play for England Schoolboys.
Becoming a Footballer
In 1929, Stanley Matthews was chosen to play as an outside-right for England Schoolboys as they took on Wales. He lined up at Bournemouth’s Dean Court in front of 20,000 spectators, finally showing his dad where his future lay. In the wake of the match, all of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion and Aston Villa were rumoured to be keen on signing him. It was the manager of Stoke City, Tom Mather, that had a plan to win his signature, however, by giving him a job as an office boy on his 15th birthday, receiving pay of £1 a week for the role.
Soon, Matthews began playing for the Stoke City reserve team, earning the review from his father that he’d ‘seen you play better and seen you play worse’. In the 1931-1932 season, Matthews played 22 times for the reserves, including one game in which he ran at the opposition left-back and took him on in a manner that went against the perceived wisdom of the time. The result was that the national press was soon predicting a bright future for him, signing up to play for Stoke City as a professional on his 17th birthday for the maximum wage of £5 per week and £3 in the summer.
Nailing Down his Place with Stoke
Before he’d even kicked a ball with the first team, Stanley Matthews was on the same wage as some seasoned professionals, such was the extent to which his club believed in him. His debut came in a game against Bury on the 19th of March 1932, which the Potters won 1-0, and Matthews learned an important lesson about how dirty opponents could be. He spent the pre-season of 1932 training intensely, going on to be selected to play 15 times and earn a winners’ medal as Stoke City won the Second Division title. His first senior goal came against the club he’d supported as a boy, Port Vale.
Stoke remained in the top-flight at the end of the following season, finishing 12th and following that up by coming tenth the season after. He continued to improve, adding more and more tricks to his arsenal and helping his club come fourth, which was its best-ever finish. He had impressed enough to be paid a £650 loyalty bonus, although the club upset him by trying to pay him only £500. As Stoke slipped down the table in the 1937-1938 season, rumours emerged that there was some resentment in the dressing room over Matthews’s success with the England national team.
The War & After
Because of the perceived resentment in the dressing room, Matthews put in a transfer request, but it was turned down. The supporters found out, and around 3,000 of them gathered to tell him to stay. He agreed to do so and helped Stoke City come seventh in the First Division, but the outbreak of the Second World War was about to put paid to his career for the time being. The war ended up costing him his peak years, with Matthews choosing to join the Royal Air Force. He played for both Stoke City and Blackpool during the war in the Wartime League, losing his father in 1945.
On his deathbed, his father reportedly asked Matthews to ‘look after his mother’ and to ‘win the FA Cup’. When the war ended, Matthews returned to Stoke City and scored 30 of the club’s 41 goals, finishing fourth again. When he fell out with the manager, the player put in another transfer request, which was accepted. He chose Blackpool as his next club, largely based on the fact that he had been located there for his RAF service and still lived nearby, whilst Stoke’s board gave it the go-ahead on the condition that it remain secret from the press. The press found out within hours.
Joining Blackpool
On the tenth of May 1947, Stanley Matthews joined Blackpool for a fee of £11,500, aged 32. Joe Smith, the Blackpool manager, informed Matthews that there were ‘no shackles’ at the club and that he could play however he wanted in the knowledge that he had his full support. He wanted to put the emphasis on entertaining football and put together a talented frontline, ending up coming ninth in the First Division but making it to the FA Cup final. On the eve of the final, he was informed that he had won the first-ever Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award.
In spite of the fact that Blackpool went 1-0 up and then 2-1 up, they lost the final 4-2 to Matt Busby’s Manchester United. The following season, the club struggled and Matthews only played 28 times because of injury. Although they finished seventh, the entertaining football on offer meant that large crowds still turned out to watch Blackpool play. They came third in the 1950-1951 season, again reaching the FA Cup final and again seeing Matthews on the losing side, this time to Newcastle United. An injury in November of 1951 limited his performances the following year.
Winning the FA Cup & Heading Back to Stoke
The 1952-1953 campaign saw Stanley Matthews finally get his FA Cup winners’ medal, playing so well at Wembley Stadium that the game ended up being dubbed the ‘Matthews Final’. This was in spite of the fact that his teammate, Stan Mortensen, scored a hat-trick. Bolton Wanderers were 3-1 up with 35 minutes to play, but Matthews put on the performance of his life and helped Blackpool win 4-3.
In the 1955-1956 campaign, Blackpool came second in the First Division and Matthews was the winner of the inaugural European Footballer of the Year award, that would later become known as the Ballon d’Or.
🏆 On the subject of Ballon d’Or winners…
🥇 Here is Sir Stanley Matthews winning the first ever Ballon d’Or in 1956.
🍊 #UTMP pic.twitter.com/WK32n3x1Ei
— Blackpool FC (@BlackpoolFC) November 30, 2021
Growing older, Smith was replaced as Blackpool manager by Ron Stuart, who didn’t rate him as highly and limited his appearances. Having decided to play in the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League for Toronto City in the summer of 1961, he returned to the Tangerines knowing his time there was limited. A return to Stoke City was on the cards, which eventually happened when they agreed to pay Blackpool £3,500 for his services. Stoke were in the Second Division at the time, but Matthews scored and assisted during the season and a year later returned to the top-flight.
Matthews’s services to football resulted in him being knighted on the first of January 1965, becoming the only active footballer to be given the honour. Just after his 50th birthday, on the sixth of February 1965, Sir Stanley Matthews played his final Football League game in a 3-1 defeat of Fulham, bringing a close to his career that had lasted for 35 years. He toured the world coaching in Australia, the United States, Canada and Africa, returning to Stoke in 1989 and later becoming honorary vice-president of the football club. He died on the 23rd of February 2000, aged 85.