Stanley Matthews

Stanley Matthews in 1962

Stanley Matthews, CBE (February 1 1915 – February 23 2000) was a football player. Often regarded as one of the greats of the English game, he was the first footballer to be knighted (and is, as of 2006, the only player to have been knighted while still playing), as well as the first European Footballer of the Year and the first Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year

Quotes about Sir Stanley Matthews

• You're 32, do you think you can make it for another couple of years?
  • Blackpool manager Joe Smith, in 1947. [1]

• 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.[2]

• It is not just in England where his name is famous. All over the world he is regarded as a true football genius
  • Berti Vogts.[3]

• For me this man probably had the greatest name of any player ever, certainly in Britain. I don't think anyone since had a name so synonymous with football in England
  • Gordon Banks.[4]