Sir Stanley Matthews
Credit:
@Tuppet
He told me that he used to play for just 20 pounds a week. Today he would be worth all the money in the Bank of England. - Gianfranco Zola
The man who taught us the way football should be played - Pele
He was my first hero and still would be my hero if he was here today. It was an absolute pleasure to stand and watch him play. - Sir Bobby Charlton
I grew up in an era when he was a god to those of us who aspired to play the game. He was a true gentleman and we shall never see his like again. - Brian Clough
In his moments he would tear a man apart, tear a team apart. - Sir Matt Busby
Stanley Matthews is a perfectionist, and when he gets the ball he refuses to pass it just for the sake of passing it. He wants his colleagues to move into position, to get away from opponents into the right position for the pass that will bring a goal. If no one moves, Stan will hold the ball until everyone is in position. And no one can hold a ball like Stan. He has uncanny control, and looks quite happy when three or four men are around him. - Tommy Lowtown
Finney was the more consistent all-rounder, but no one mesmerised defences like Matthews on his day - Maurice Edelstone and Terence Delaney
The first ballon d'or winner was one of the finest dribbler of all time, dubbed as the Wizard and the Magician, he is considered the greatest pure right winger along with Garrincha. Most fans have seen footage of him when he was on the very tail end of his career. At or near the physical peak of his career, Sir Stan was unleashed lightning on the pitch. Even in his Fourties he was turning top-flight calibre defenders inside-out on a weekly basis for both club & country.
Place in history
One of the criticism people about Sir Stan is his lack of goals, that is because he played as a right-winger in the Chapman style W-M. He was supposed to stay out wide, drop back, make himself available, roast his marker, and get in pin-point crosses, all of which he was VERY good at. There were plenty of players who could bang in 20+ goals a season back then, but VERY few could set people up like Sir Stan. He was very much a playmaker in the team playing as outside right in W-M, and the right winger feeding near post crosses to the number 9 is the key attacking move in this formation. Matthews was probably the best ever at both setting up and delivering the final ball in this key connection.
Another complaint is his lack of trophies and the biggest reason was the English league system of that time. He played for a local club in the era before Johnny Haynes & Jimmy Hill broke the max wage. Why go to a big club like Arsenal or Chelsea, live away from what you were used to and be under all that pressure for the purposes of glory-hunting when you got paid exactly the same amount for staying right where you wanted to ? The likes of Coke & Nike also weren't handing out seven figure endorsement deals to plug their cola or trainers if you happened to play for a big club. Let's face it: a big reason why top players make a beeline for big clubs is in order to "ring the register" in the modern era. No such avenues or temptations existed for top players in Sir Stan's day & playing for England, which was the highest level of play, Sir Stan was dynamite on the pitch.
More than anything else though, he was an entertainer of the highest quality. Fo 20 or so years he was the biggest draw in English football, and its said that he used to draw 10,000 extra fans when playing on away ground, while filling his own ground with 22K faithfuls. In an era without TV or commercials income, he was an insanely important asset for his team.
Ballon D'or
His Ballon D'or is considered honorary by some fans, in that its given to him for some sort of lifetime achievement award. But thats quite far from the truth. The Ballon D'or was awarded like always by a panel of voters with Sir Stanley receiving 47 points over Di Stefano receiving 44, Kopa 33 and Puskas 32 points. The voting might be considered contentious like it was in many other years, but it wasn't an honorary award.
As for why would he receive it, in that year - He led Blackpool to second place behind only to Sir Busby's first great United team. England also played some blinders in that time as well: Hammering Spain @ Wembley 4-1 in Nov. of '55 (technically before '56, but I'm sure that it was still fresh in the voters' minds). In May of '56 England also hammered a Brazil XI 4-2 that had many of the future Sweden '58 WC-winners in the line-up while Sir Stan gave Nilton Santos, then considered one of the TOP left-backs around, a torrid time all throughout the match. Later in the same month, England also defeated W. Germany, who were the defending WC-champions, 3-1 on Germany's home turf in Berlin. So, while Di Stefano almost certainly had the better club season, Sir Stan almost definitely had the better year at international level. And in this era, Internationals (even friendly) were the highest level of football.
Videos
Here's some footage of Sir Stan when he was closer to his physical peak. Remember that the most of the clips will be on around 30 fps speed film, so you'll have to correct for the "live look" in your head as they seem slower than the real action.
Here's Sir Stan in action against Brazil in '56. Watch him getting past Santos practically at will and the quality of his passes, especially his crossing into the box:
This is Sir Stan in action against Spurs in the 6th Rd. of the FA Cup back in March of '48:
Here's Him & Sir Tommy Finney driving a ten man England forward to defeat a Wales XI 1-0 in Nov. of the same year. Pay particular attention to the clips where Sir Stan completely dismantles Wales L-B Alf Sherwood, who was one of the best around:
The redemption for Matthews after on the losing side of 2 cup finals, he was finally the hero at the age of 38, in 1953 cup final against Bolton:
Against Rest of the world XI, squaring against Hanappi who was one of the best around at that time -
Here's another one -
Here is a great profile on Sir Stan with the bits from the likes of Sir Matt Busby, Lofthouse, Mortensen etc -
http://spartacus-educational.com/BLACKPmatthews.htm
This is one of my favorite "legends" videos from BBC -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/football_legends/11900.shtml
