The Wizard of the Dribble and The Magician.

After a terrible performance by the English national team in the world cup yesterday I saw a short film about the great Sir Stanley Mathews and all the good work he had done in Soweto and amazingly I had never heard about his great work there. Mr Capello has stated his English players were tired and yet Sir Stan played football for England at the age of 42 years 103 days.

Longest England career
Stanley Matthews, 22 years 228 days, 29 September 1934 — 15 May 1957

Oldest player
Stanley Matthews, 42 years 103 days, 15 May 1957

Appearances in three separate decades
Stanley Matthews, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s


Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the English game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards. Matthews' nicknames included The Wizard of the Dribble and The Magician. A vegetarian teetotaller, he kept fit enough to play at the top level until he was 50 years old, the oldest player ever to play in England's top football division and the oldest player ever to represent the country. He played his final competitive game in 1970, at the age of 55, for Hibernians in Malta, which team he also coached at the time. Matthews was also an inaugural inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 to honour his contribution to the English game.[1]
Matthews played in the famous Battle of Highbury where England defeated the World Champions Italy 3-2 with a brace from Eric Brook and one goal from Ted Drake. Matthews later recollected that this was the most violent match that he had been involved in with Brook suffering a broken arm and Drake acquiring two black eyes.
A testimonial match in honour of Sir Stanley was played in April 1965 at the Victoria Ground, where almost 35,000 people watched a 10-goal thriller between a British XI and a Europe XI, that included greats such as Lev Yashin, Josef Masopust, Ferenc Puskás and Alfredo Di Stéfano, which finished 6–4 to the Europeans. Matthews was carried shoulder-high from the field at full-time.
Praise
"The man who taught us the way football should be played" - Pelé

"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

"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

"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

"He [Stanley Matthews] told me that he used to play for just twenty pounds a week. Today he would be worth all the money in the Bank of England" - Gianfranco Zola
Honours
Blackpool
• FA Cup winner: 1953
Stoke City (second spell)
• Football League Second Division winner: 1962/63
Individual
• 1948: Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year
• 1956: European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or)
• 1957: CBE
• 1963: Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year
• 1965: Knight Bachelor
• 1992: FIFA Gold Medal Order
• 2002: English Football Hall of Fame
• 2010: Stoke-on-Trent Sporting Hall of Fame