Football: Top 15 footballers who are/were more famous than their clubs (With Pictures)

10. Sir Stanley Matthews – Stoke & Blackpool

Not even the lure of seeing modern day stars such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo can compare to the sense of excitement and anticipation which surrounded seeing the great Stanley Matthews live, in the era before games were globally televised. The fact that Stoke and Blackpool were both good teams during Matthew’s day means he ranks no higher than tenth, but even alongside Neil Franklin at Stoke or Stan Mortensen at Blackpool, whichever team Matthews graced, he was always the star and by some distance too. Games involving Matthews, like Carter but to an even greater extent, always saw bumper crowds, he was the biggest footballing superstar of his day.