Stanley Matthews was born on 1st February 1915 in Stoke-on-Trent to Jack Matthews and Elizabeth Hewitt. From a very early age, Stanley's father realised there was something special about his son as he won a race for under 14s when he was just six yars old. Although his father wanted Stanley to be like him and become a boxer, the young Matthews stuck with his first love and that was football.
At the age of 13 and just after his school master made him play at outside right rather than his preferred centre half position, Stanley was picked to play for England Schoolboys against Wales. His performance for England Schoolboys alerted a number of clubs who showed an interest in signing Stanley, however it was his home town Stoke that finally signed him as an office boy when he was 15 at a wage of £1 per week!
Stanley initially played in the Stoke reserves and on his 17th birthday he as a professional. He finally made his first team debut against Bury with Stoke winning 1-0. At the end of the 1932-33 season, Stoke were 2nd division champions with Stanley making 15 appearances and scoring his first goal during the campaign. His first team appearances increased over the next 2 seasons and in 1934 Stanley was picked for the full England team for the first time.
After a seventh place finish for Stoke at the end of the 1938-39 season, Stanley's career was put on hold until 1946 due to World War 2. At the beginning of the war, Stanley joined the RAF and rose to the rank of corporal and freely admitted that hew a very lenient NCO. During the war, Stanley played a number of Wartime League and Cup games for Stoke as well as playing guset games for Blackpool, Aresnal and Glasgow Rangers amongst others. He also played a number of time for England during the war but they were not recognised a full internationals.
After the war, Stanley resumed his career with Stoke however at the end of the 1946-47 season he put in a transfer request after a bust-up with the Stoke manager. Stanley had lived in Blackpool whilst he was in the RAF and it was there where he was transferred for a fee of £11500. Blackpool finished 8th in Stanley's first season and reached the FA Cup final where they lost 4-2 to Manchester United despite taking the lead twice. On the eve of the FA Cup final, Stanley became the first receipient of the Football Writers Footballer of the Year award
Blackpool reached the FA Cup final again in 1951 but lost to Newcastle. In 1953 though, Stanley finally got his FA Cup winners medal in what was dubbed 'The Matthews Final'. With 35 minutes left and Blackpool losing 3-1 to Bolton, Stanley inspired his team mates to a last minute 4-3 win.
Stanley's career at Blackpool coninued for another 8 years and in 1961 at the age of 46 and after a brief stint playing in Canada he returned to Stoke for another 4 seasons before hanging up his boots at the age of 50. A staggering achievement for an outfield player which will never be matched.
When his playing career ended, Stanley had a largely unsuccessful time as a manager at Port Vale. However he toured the world spending most of the time in South Africa where he coached an all black team based in Soweto. In 1989 Stanley returned to Stoke and finally retired. In 2000 whilst on holiday in Tenerife, Stanley fell ill and died. His funeral took place in Stoke and over 100,000 people lined the route to the Britannia(now Bet 365)Stadium where his ashes were buried under the centre circle
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