*This article first appeared on ESPN FC on Feb. 12, 2012.
One of the greatest English players to have played the game, Stanley Matthews ended his FA Cup career with a goal that signalled the longest goalscoring span in the competition's history. Matthews scored his first cup goal as a 19-year-old for Stoke City back in early 1934, and on February 15, 1964 - 30 years and 33 days later - he scored for the same club in a 2-2 draw against Swansea at the ripe old age of 49.
The son of a professional featherweight boxer, Stanley Matthews was always destined to make an impact in sport, although insisted in his autobiography 'The Way It Was': "I had only one thing on my mind - to be a footballer.