Footballer Stanley Matthews: biography, personal life, goals and achievements

If we talk about the real legends of British football, one of the first players to be named is the flanking midfielder Stanley Matthews, born in the distant 1915. Hardly anyone found his game, but how much he brought to the British football, even add up the legends. He became a national hero, as well as a legend of his club, for which he played most of a very long career. Stanley Matthews is an incredible personality in the history of sports, and you should know what exactly he could achieve in his life as a football player.

The beginning of a career and an amazing success

The fact that Stanley Matthews is a true football genius, it became clear very, very early. At the age of fifteen, he joined the Football Academy of the club "Stoke City", where he immediately began to work closely. The following year, the sixteen-year-old boy first entered the field as part of a professional team, twice for the whole season. The rest of the time he played for the youth squad of the club. A year later, despite his extreme youth, he began to appear on the field much more steadily - in fifteen matches for the season he was on the lawn - and even managed to score his first goal in his career. Matthews' great age, which allowed the club to sign a professional contract with him, coincided with the club's entrance into the Higher Division, and it was the successes of this player that largely allowed Stoke to stay there for a long time without flying to the Second League. Six full seasons Stanley Mathews spent in the club, having played for this time in 236 games and scoring 51 goals. However, in the stable course of events, the Second World War intervened - in 1939 only three matches were played, after which the action of the football championship was suspended. The game activity was fully restored only in 1946, and that season was the last for Matthews in the Stoke City shirt - he played in 28 games, scored five goals and moved to Blackpool.

Going to Blackpool

Striking in such a player as Sir Stanley Mathews is that he played very, very long time unlike modern football players who complete their professional career after thirty years. Rarely, who continues to speak after thirty-five. But Matthews in thirty-two years only moved to a new club, where he immediately became a key player and remained so for fourteen years. He no longer scored as many goals as in Stoke City, because his role has changed a little. Naturally, he was no longer as fast as he was in his youth, but at the same time he was still as dangerous to the enemy. Stanley Matthews is a football player who played 428 games with Blackpool, scoring eighteen goals. The footballer started his fifteenth season quite cheerfully for this club, but the club itself began to change politics, focusing on young and promising players, so after the last two matches in 1961, the legendary player returned to his native club, which he gladly accepted.

Return to Stoke City

So the 46-year-old Stanley Matthews, a legendary pupil, returned to Stoke City. The biography and goals of this midfielder amaze everyone to this day, but the age in which he continued to play is also surprising. After all, he decided to finish his career when he turned fifty. So for another four years he played for Stoke City, going on the field 66 times and scoring five goals. Only after this, the legendary football player announced that he is completing his professional career.

National team appearances

What contributed to the history of the English national team Mathews Stanley? Sports biography of this player includes a wide variety of successes, and many of them are connected not with club, but with international performances. For the first time, the England national football team Matthews tried on at the age of nineteen - in 1934. Since then, he became one of the most important parts of the team and stayed with it almost to the very end. You already know that he completed his professional career at the age of fifty, in 1965, but the player left the team a little earlier. After fifty-four matches and eleven goals Matthews left the team in 1957 at the age of 42 years.

Success at the club level

As already mentioned, Matthews has been able to achieve a great deal in his long career. If we are talking about club awards, then here the most part of successful performances is connected with Blackpool, Stoke City has never had a high performance. This can easily be seen from the fact that with this club Stanley managed to achieve only two victories in the Second Division - in 1933, and then thirty years later - in 1963. But with Blackpool, who, incidentally, was also never on the list of the best British teams, in 1948 and 1951 he managed to reach the FA Cup final, but both times the club lost. And only in 1953, Matthews managed to raise the coveted trophy above his head. But on this award ended - as close to club success the player was selected in 1956, when "Blackpool" took second place in the championship of England, but the team was not enough to become a champion.

International successes

As part of the England team, Matthews managed to win more than once the home championship held in Britain, which was attended by four countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. From 1935 to 1955, together with Matthews at the base, the England team won nine times in this championship. However, this is all the trophies on the international level that this unique football player could win. And since it's about his uniqueness, it's worth looking at individual awards, which he managed to get for his long career.

Individual successes

In 1948, Stanley Matthews received his first individual award - he was recognized as the best footballer in Europe. In 1956, he received the most prestigious individual award for the player - "Golden Ball". A year later he received the Order of the British Empire, and in 1963 repeated his success and again was named the best player in Europe. In 1965, he was also named a bachelor knight, after which a year later included in the list of hundreds of legendary players. In 2002, he was posthumously included in the English Football Hall of Fame, and in 2007 was selected as one of the players in the "Footballers of the Century" team.

Personal life

As for Stanley Mathews' private life, everything here is quite interesting. In 1934, at the age of 19, he married Betty Wellance, five years later they had the first child, Jean, and five years later - the second child, Stanley Jr.. For a long time they lived as a happy family, until after the end of football career Matthews began to travel across Europe as a coach and charitable figure. And in 1967, a 52-year-old Briton met 40-year-old Mila, who worked as an interpreter in Czechoslovakia. They got into an affair, and Stanley realized that this was his true love, which he had been waiting for all his life. As a result, he divorced Betty, with whom he lived for thirty-three years, and married Mile, with whom he continued his travels around the world. She died in 1999, with which Stanley could not cope - he lived another year, after which he died in 2000 at the age of 85 years. And ended the life of one of the greatest players in the history of English, and world football.