STANLEY AND STOKE

Nope didn't get to see a match here, but I did walk my 10,000 steps daily around some wonderful arenas, the Cathedral, the Alcazar, film sets when "Game of Thrones" was filmed, places where peoples' heads were chopped off and the blood stains still in the marble floor....the Spanish are so dramatic!
The shirt of course is Seville FC's, a team smarting from being thumped by Barcelona recently. I did get to the club shop in town, but didn't spend a Euro.

The stripey shirt reminds me of Stoke City, no cathedrals of note here but quite a bit of pottery and in footballing history, a club that gave a debut to one of our greatest footballers and who took him back at the age of 50, allowing Stanley Matthews to play a few more years until 1965 and who helped the Potters have a bit of success when they were waning.
He was born in 1915 played for Stoke from 1932.

On October 19th 1961, Stoke City paid £3,500 to Blackpool, a club they sold him to in 1947 for £11,500. Matthews had played 259 games (51 goals) before being sold and then stayed for 379 games at the seaside, only scoring 17 goals
Stoke were a 2nd Division club in 1961 and Matthews was 46! He played 59 times for them.

Crowds at Stoke were knocking on around 8,500 before he joined and nearly 36,000 after he signed.

Matthews was awarded the CBE for his services to football and knighted while still playing; something not done before or since. Matthews won 54 caps for England and scored 11 goals.

He was voted best footballer in Europe, the first time this award was given (1956) and the first English Football Writers award (1947-8). A right winger, he was the wizard of dribble who made many goals for club and country. Playing for Blackpool he won the 1953 FA Cup Final for them having lost in two previous finals in 1951 and 1948. This cup win won the hearts of all fans, thrilling them as Matthews weaved his magic from 3-1 down to 4-3 up.

He was the inaugural member of the English Footballers' Hall of Fame in 2002.

I was lucky enough to meet him on two occasions and by then he had retired! But he was an ambassador for football, taking the game into South Africa especially and was globally acclaimed as one of the greatest.