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Outside
the stadium is the impressive looking Sir Stanley
Matthews statues, which successfully capture the
grace and movement of the legendary player of the
era. He made his league debut for Stoke aged only
17m in March 1932. He was capped for England two
years later, in what was to be the first of 54
caps. He went onto make 355 appearances for the
Potters, scoring 62 goals. He gained the nicknames
'The Magician' and 'The Wizard of the Dribble'.
After the war he joined Blackpool where he made
379 appearances, before returning to Stoke in 1961
at the tender age of 46. At Blackpool he will
probably be best remembered for inspiring the team
onto victory in the FA Cup Final in 1953, when
Blackpool defeated Bolton 4-3. This match was to
become known as the 'Matthews Final'. Also at the
age of 42 he was to earn the last of his England
caps and became the oldest player ever to
represent his country.
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It is
probably testament to his genius that he
continued playing until the age of 50. He was
knighted in 1965 and had a brief spell as
manager of Port Vale, as well as Hibernians in
Malta. He passed away in 2000, aged 85. His
ashes were buried somewhere beneath the
Britannia Stadium pitch.
A plaque on the front of the statue reads; 'SIR
STANLEY MATTHEWS FOUNDATION. Statue unveiled on
27th October 2001 by Jean Gough - Patron, Kevin
Keegan, ex England International and Manager,
Terry Conroy, ex Stoke City, Eric Skeels, ex
Stoke City, Three local children'. The sculptors
were; Julian Jeffery, Carl Payne and Andrew
Edwards.
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