Stanley Matthews he helped Blackpool to win the cup with a formidable personal performance in the "Matthews Final" of 1953. Between 1934 and 1957 he won 54 caps for England, playing in the FIFA World Cup in 1950 and 1954, and winning nine British Home Championship titles. Following an unsuccessful stint as Port Vale's general manager between 1965 and 1968, he travelled around the world, coaching enthusiastic amateurs. The most notable of his coaching experiences came in 1975 in South Africa, where in spite of the harsh apartheid laws of the time he established an all-black team in Soweto known as "Stan's
Stanley Matthews Ratcliffe, Dennis Viollet, and Jimmy McIlroy, Stoke had the oldest team in the Football League. Matthews scored his only goal of the season in the final home game of the campaign, as Luton Town were beaten 2–0, the result ensured Stoke gained promotion to the top flight. Stoke went up as Second Division champions, and Matthews was voted FWA Footballer of the Year for the second time in his career, 15 years after he was made the inaugural winner of the award. Aged 48 when he picked up this award, he became the oldest winner of the award by a