Old Everton Pictures


Cameron Manning said:
Coming in late on this discussion but to me another footballer from after the war,and possibly before the war, Tom Finney of PNE was a better player than Stanley Mathews and more versatile, playing on both wings and as a centre forward, providing and scoring goals, he was also a two footed player whereas Stanley was manly a right footed player, only opinions I realise but I think many contemporary fans would also put Tom above Stan in their ratings.
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Not sure I’ve ever seen any contemporary poll rating Finney ahead of Matthews myself and being born in the 1970s, I’d heard of Matthews years and years before I’d heard of Finney to be honest. That’s not to say Tom couldn’t be compared to Stanley, of course he can, and maybe his all-round game meant he could have been more successful in a different era, who knows? But Stanley Matthews, to me, is basically the byword for old time football,the first real global superstar of the sport….and beating Di Stefano (who was the worlds greatest player in the 1950s) to the first Ballon D’or demonstrates Matthews’ status on a global level.

Also, the two footed argument isnt the strongest, as neither Messi or Maradona aren’t two footed footballers (both of them all left peg) and they’re the two best players I’ve ever seen.
 
Stevie Nicks Bootleg said:
Not sure I’ve ever seen any contemporary poll rating Finney ahead of Matthews myself and being born in the 1970s, I’d heard of Matthews years and years before I’d heard of Finney to be honest. That’s not to say Tom couldn’t be compared to Stanley, of course he can, and maybe his all-round game meant he could have been more successful in a different era, who knows? But Stanley Matthews, to me, is basically the byword for old time football,the first real global superstar of the sport….and beating Di Stefano (who was the worlds greatest player in the 1950s) to the first Ballon D’or demonstrates Matthews’ status on a global level.

Also, the two footed argument isnt the strongest, as neither Messi or Maradona aren’t two footed footballers (both of them all left peg) and they’re the two best players I’ve ever seen.
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Far enough it’s all about opinions, David Beckham is a global superstar to some people, The Ballon D’or is picked by reporters and Alfredo Di Stefano was better than Mathews or Finney in my opinion and could have played anywhere on the field fro full back to outside left, Messi and Maradona were both outstanding footballers with one foot, imagine how good they would have been with two feet, like Georgie Best for instance, if he had played more than seven years in top flight football he would have rivalled most footballers to be an all time top class footballer,again Stevie it’s all about opinion. Alfredo Di Stefano was my all time player.
 

Cameron Manning said:
Far enough it’s all about opinions, David Beckham is a global superstar to some people, The Ballon D’or is picked by reporters and Alfredo Di Stefano was better than Mathews or Finney in my opinion and could have played anywhere on the field fro full back to outside left, Messi and Maradona were both outstanding footballers with one foot, imagine how good they would have been with two feet, like Georgie Best for instance, if he had played more than seven years in top flight football he would have rivalled most footballers to be an all time top class footballer,again Stevie it’s all about opinion. Alfredo Di Stefano was my all time player.
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True about Beckham, but his status was greatly helped by his looks, pop star wife, PR machine, and the fact that he played for arguably the worlds biggest club (he was a fine player too, but not on the level of Zidane and original Ronaldo). Matthews had none of this. Also Beckham isn’t the reference point for his era in terms of “football greatness”, Matthews is (especially for the pre- Di Stefano and Puskas era). Just like, say, the Beatles are for a pop group or Sugar Ray Robinson is for pound-for-pound boxing.

Even in the book The Football Man (still possibly the book on this sport) Matthews features greatly, much more than Finney, and Stan is alluded to when talking about George Best (e.g the most exciting player since Matthews, individual ability not seen since Matthews, etc). Stanley- always the reference point.

Good call on Di Stefano, he was the greatest of his era, no doubt, that why I brought him up, and that’s why beating him to the Ballon Dor was such a big achievement. And Alfredo, as well as Puskas, Yashin, Kubala, et al, all turned up for Matthews retirement game, such was the respect they had for him.

Messi and Maradona could obviously use their right but chose not to most of the time, they wouldn’t have been a better player (take Harlands goal vs Dortmund, most would hit that with their right foot, the fact that he did it with his preferred left makes no odds, the result was still the same…and if anything it looks more spectacular with his left).

Also, it’s almost impossible to be a better player than Messi anyway- he’s basically all-time top 10 in scoring, passing AND dribbling. No one has ever been this good in all these three areas combined. Maybe only your all-time guy Alfredo comes close there.
 
Stevie Nicks Bootleg said:
True about Beckham, but his status was greatly helped by his looks, pop star wife, PR machine, and the fact that he played for arguably the worlds biggest club (he was a fine player too, but not on the level of Zidane and original Ronaldo). Matthews had none of this. Also Beckham isn’t the reference point for his era in terms of “football greatness”, Matthews is (especially for the pre- Di Stefano and Puskas era). Just like, say, the Beatles are for a pop group or Sugar Ray Robinson is for pound-for-pound boxing.

Even in the book The Football Man (still possibly the book on this sport) Matthews features greatly, much more than Finney, and Stan is alluded to when talking about George Best (e.g the most exciting player since Matthews, individual ability not seen since Matthews, etc). Stanley- always the reference point.

Good call on Di Stefano, he was the greatest of his era, no doubt, that why I brought him up, and that’s why beating him to the Ballon Dor was such a big achievement. And Alfredo, as well as Puskas, Yashin, Kubala, et al, all turned up for Matthews retirement game, such was the respect they had for him.

Messi and Maradona could obviously use their right but chose not to most of the time, they wouldn’t have been a better player (take Harlands goal vs Dortmund, most would hit that with their right foot, the fact that he did it with his preferred left makes no odds, the result was still the same…and if anything it looks more spectacular with his left).

Also, it’s almost impossible to be a better player than Messi anyway- he’s basically all-time top 10 in scoring, passing AND dribbling. No one has ever been this good in all these three areas combined. Maybe only your all-time guy Alfredo comes close there.
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What’s true is that all the players we’ve mentioned, except for Beckham, were out standing footballers that football fans of their time couldn’t get enough of.
 



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