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Genius and gentleman
Posted: Sunday February 27, 2000 03:01 PM
By Phil Jones, CNNSI.com ATLANTA -- Tributes have been pouring in for Sir Stanley Matthews, who died on Wednesday at the age of 85. Others have matched and in some cases even surpassed his celebrity down the decades. But no player in England has ever been held in such high regard as both a genius with a ball at his feet and a gentleman with the public at large. Only when the television cameras rolled were world football superstars created. Images of Brazilian great Pele flashed around the globe, and, later, dazzling Dutchman Johan Cruyff and Argentine maestro Diego Maradona -- household names one and all. But long before they were beamed in living color to every corner of the Earth, it was a black and white case that Stan was the man. Stanley Matthews, a gifted played dubbed the "Wizard of the Dribble," the pre-TV soccer icon. "He's probably the first real soccer superstar and the man who never lost the common touch," said Jimmy Armfield, former teammate and England international. "I think that's why he endeared himself to so many people." Matthews -- the player and the man -- began endearing crowds from the time he made his English league debut in the 1930s as a teenager with Stoke City. He transferred to Blackpool 15 years later for 11,500 pounds -- the price it costs to put one major star on the pitch for a single game nowadays. He'd later return to Stoke and play until he was 50. His 33-year career touched four decades and a multitude of lives. "He was a wonderful player," said former England international Tom Finney. "It was a tribute for me to be able to play with him when he was at his peak. And when you consider that he played until he was 50, it's a wonderful accolade to any player To play league football at 50 years of age. "I spoke to him on a number of occasions and he felt he finished to early at age 50." But even after his playing days were done, Matthews' legend grew, and the star treatment remained. "The Staley Matthews mailbag is larger than anyone else's and has been for as long as I've been here, which is five years," said Jez Moxey, chief executive for Stoke City. "He used to pop in every other day and would answer his mail religiously." That helped, with each passing year, to endear Matthews to whole new generations of football fans -- some of whom can visit their club shop of the present and dip into his glorious past. And imagine him jinking and weaving down the wing, illuminating the 1953 FA Cup final -- dubbed the "Matthews Final." "People talk about the 1953 cup final, but that wasn't my memory of Stan," said Jimmy Armfield. "It was playing behind him for six or seven years, and seeing that No. 7 shirt going away from me, tantalizing the defender and going past them on the outside and dragging it across the box." That was trademark Matthews, who British Prime Minister Tony Blair said "was not only one of the finest player his country had ever seen, but was also a model sportsman who played the game as it should be played. He was never booked or sent off once." The man capped 54 times for England, the last as a 42-year-old, was front and back page news on Thursday. And as floral tributes were placed at the grounds once graced by Matthews, the queen -- who knighted him in 1965 -- sent her condolences to his family. Her subjects paid their silent respects. Matthews is gone, but won't be forgotten. When Wembley Stadium is reduced to rubble in a few months' time, it's hoped the new arena will bear some permanent reminder of Sir Stan -- but that will only go some way to filling the void. "It's a big chunk out of the football life... Stanley Matthews... there is only one Stanley Matthews," said Armfield. "People have used the term 'greats,' 'legends' and so on over the years -- but Stanley Matthews really was a great." Indeed, in his case, "great" barely does him justice; superstar is almost too flippant. Perhaps Pele put it best when he said Matthews was "the man who taught us the way football should be played."
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