Greatest footballer of his day...on £5 a week
Sir Stan’s first pro wage revealed as Neymar set to net £1m a week
PUNDITS say Sir Stanley Matthews was easily as good as the modern day footie greats – but players these days leave him at the bottom of the league when it comes to wages.
His first professional contract, signed in 1932, has been unearthed. It shows he was paid £5 a week during the season – worth about £320 in today’s money.
By comparison striker Neymar is likely to get more than £1million a week as his world-record transfer from Barcelona went ahead last night.
Sir Stanley, one of England’s greatest ever players, signed his first contract with Stoke City when he turned 17.
It says: “Stanley Matthews, of 89 Seymour Street, Hanley, will play in an efficient manner and do the best of his ability for the club.” Getting £5 a week works out as almost £17,000 a year now.
But he got just £3 a week during the offseason in the summer, so his yearly wage equates to about £14,000.
It means that Brazilian ace Neymar, 25, in his move to Paris Saint-Germain, will take just over two hours to pocket the equivalent of what Sir Stanley earned each year at the start of his career.
The average salary for a Premier League player these days is reckoned to be about £40,000 per week, with top stars on more than £200,000.
Sir Stanley’s first contract, which included a £10 signing-on fee, has come to light after being sent for auction. A second contract, dating from 1935 when he was already an England player and Matthews Mania had begun to sweep the world of football, is also to go under the hammer.
It bumped his pay up to £7 a week in the season, rising to £8 if picked for Stoke’s first team.
His offseason wages rose to £6 a week, meaning his annual pay was around £25,000 in today’s money.
The contracts are owned by Stoke City fans David Lockett, 53, and his brothers Andy, 56, and Graham, 61.
Their dad was given the documents in lieu of a debt in the 1960s. David said: “We’d love them to end up in the British football museum. They are a crucial part of the game’s history.”
Derbyshire-based auctioneer firm Hansons is set to put the artefacts up for grabs this month.
Footballers’ wages only began to soar in 1961 when Fulham star Jimmy Hill won his campaign to have the players’ £20-a-week salary cap axed.
Sir Stanley, known as the Wizard of the Dribble, retired from professional football in 1965 when he was 50. He is the only footballer to have been knighted while still playing professionally.
The outside-right won the FA Cup with Blackpool in 1953, in a game known as the Matthews Final due to his thrilling display. He died in 2000 at the age of 85.