The First Superstar

A brilliant technically gifted player, a pioneer on and off the pitch, an icon of his era, a role in a movie, an outspoken pundit in retirement, whatever the direction of modern football’s superstars, there was one man who did it first.

It’s 100 years ago that Billy Meredith played his last ever match for Manchester City after becoming the first hero of football following the sport’s explosion at the start of the 20th Century.

With his loose-fitting long trousers and a wooden toothpick clamped between his teeth below his Edwardian moustache, he may not have had the same glamour of the game’s modern stars.

But he was a celebrity of his day, adorning collectable cigarette cards and drawing crowds up and down the country, looking for a glimpse of the man nicknamed the ‘Welsh Wizard’.

Born in 1874, 14 years before the first ever game in the Football League, in the North Welsh village of Chirk, a life at the local Black Park Colliery was a common path for men and boys in the town.

Meredith worked there too. But, despite being initially reluctant, managed to break away to have a remarkable football career at City, Manchester United and Wales.

A celebrated star of his era, the winger is still remembered for his incredible feats a century after he hung up his battered old leather boots.

It was at St Andrews on March 29, 1924 that he pulled on a sky blue shirt for the very last time, three decades on from his first appearance for the Club.

More than 50,000 people were inside Birmingham City’s ground for the FA Cup semi-final with Newcastle United. But a 2-0 defeat via goals from Neil Harris meant there would be no trip to Wembley for the Blues.

So at the age of 49, still the oldest player to ever wear the City shirt, Meredith called time on his playing career, but his memory and myth live on.

He remains joint fifth on our list of all-time goalscorers alongside exalted company that includes legendary leader Sergio Aguero, pre-war stars Eric Brook and Tommy Johnson, Colin Bell and Francis Lee from the celebrated side of the late Sixties and early Seventies and the great Joe Hayes that preceded them.

Meredith scored the winning goal to secure and, as captain, lift our first ever major trophy – when we won our first FA Cup in 1904.

Another FA Cup and two First Division titles were won with United while his legacy lives on as an inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2007.

As well as his huge feats and quality on the pitch, he was also instrumental in the rapid rise of the game and helped to form the first player’s union.

Professional footballer wasn’t even a career when Meredith was born one of 10 children in the same year as historic figures such as composer Gustav Holst, magician Harry Houdini and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Leaving school at the age of 12, he followed his father and older brothers into mining, working as a pony driver amongst other roles for the next eight years.

But football had become a passion from a young age as the game grew wildly in popularity across the country and in communities such as Chirk where miners would race from the pit at the end of the shift, still covered in coal dust, to play.

Like many football-mad kids in the 150 years since, William Henry Meredith was kicking a football as soon as he could walk and benefitted from his sporting environment.

Big brothers Elias, James and Samuel were all keen footballers with the latter playing for Chirk and going on to play for Stoke City and winning eight caps for Wales.

School headmaster T.E. Thomas was also a huge influence and taught the importance of keeping the ball on the ground and helped produced an incredible number of Welsh internationals from the area.

“When I was a boy at school, Mr. Thomas, our master at Chirk, used to impress upon us the value of ball practice,” he said in an interview. “If we kicked the ball over the schoolyard wall we went straight back to lessons.

“‘Keep the ball on the floor’, he used to say, and he was right. If you cannot control the ball you are no good. You may be slow to start with, but speed will come, and a speedy man who has command of the ball is always more use to his side than a speedy man who is soon dispossessed.” 

Billy, meanwhile, also had the radical idea of focusing on fitness – training twice a week, remaining teetotal despite running a number of Manchester pubs later in his life and refusing the fashion for smoking a pipe.

After playing for the reserves, he finally made his first-team debut as an 18-year-old for Chirk AAA in what would be a remarkable period of success for the club before the turn of the century.

Chirk, made up of mostly pitworkers, won the Welsh Cup five times in eight years and losing to Wrexham in another, with Meredith playing in three of the finals.

In 1894, they also reached the quarter-finals of the English Amateur Cup but were forced to withdraw by the Welsh FA.

By that time, Meredith was also playing for Wrexham and Northwich Victoria and his reputation was beginning to grow with the big clubs across the north all wanting his services.

Bolton Wanderers, Stoke and Sheffield United were all possibilities but he joined Manchester City initially as an amateur, remaining in his hometown and continuing to work at the mine.

Welsh football fans were desperate to hang on to their players and legend has it that City representatives were thrown in the village pond so they could not speak to Billy.

However, he made his debut on 27 October 1894, ironically against Newcastle, in a Second Division game which ended 5-4 to the home side. Meredith was working in the pit on the Friday night, set off on the train at 2am on Saturday morning travelling via Manchester to St James’ Park, and got back to Chirk at 10.30am on Sunday for another shift at the mine.

The following week he played in his first Manchester derby, scoring both goals in a 5-2 defeat to Newton Heath at Hyde Road and his third appearance was another defeat at Burton United.

In the New Year he finally signed a professional contract, earning a reasonable £3 a week during the season and £2 in the summer, although he continued to commute from his home.

City were beginning to pick up and secured a back-to-back 7-1 win over Notts County and 11-3 victory over Lincoln City in March.

In the same month, the 20-year-old won his first cap for Wales and would go on to make 48 appearances in total when countries from the British Isles only played each other.

While that was a record that stood for more than 50 years, he claimed he would have won 71 caps had he been allowed to play more often by his clubs and it would have been fewer had he not taken ‘dog’s leave’ – playing without permission.

His last match for his country in 1920, was a 2-1 win over England at Highbury, the first time Wales had beaten their rivals in 38 years. Meredith, then aged 45 years and 229 days, remains the oldest ever player to face the Three Lions.