English footballer who played for Stoke City, Blackpool, and England. He played nearly 700 Football League games, and won 54 international caps. He was the first Footballer of the Year 1948 (again 1963), the first European Footballer of the Year 1956, and the first footballer to be knighted for services to the game 1965. An outstanding right-winger, he had the nickname "the Wizard of the Dribble" because of his ball control. At the age of 38 he won an FA Cup Winners' medal when Blackpool beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3, Matthews laying on three goals in the last 20 minutes. He continued to play first-division football after the age of 50.
