First in football to have a statue / stand dedicated them ?

[tali1]

Who were first in football to have a statue dedicated them ?
Who were first in football to have a stand dedicated them ?
Also is Thierry Henry earliest to have a statue dedicated to him ?

[MarkRae]

Your questions are ambiguous. Herbert Chapman has just had a statue dedicated to him. Sir Stanley Matthews was a later figure in football, but had a statue dedicated to him before Chapman did...

[stokemaveric]

sir stanley matthews has 2 statues dedicated to him...1 is outside the britannia stadium and 1 is in hanley city centre stoke on trent...

[MarkRae]

Did Bobby Charlton and Denis Law die, then...?

[SeaJayPea]

I'm guessing that Henry's the only player to have had a statue unveiled before his career's ended.

Stanley Matthews' statue must be one of the earliest, if not the first.

No idea about the stands. Did Everton ever have somebody called Gwladys play for them?

[mightyWBA]

Hello Seajay :-) The Gwladys stand at Everton is on Gwladys Street hence its name,Gwladys was a Saint apparently(not a Southampton player btw!)
I've got a book about football grounds somewhere,I'll dig it out to see if I can find the answers to the stand naming and statue questions.
We've got no statues or stands named after any of our former players because the clubs too tight!
We have got a set of gates named in honour of Jeff "The King" Astle ..They were paid for by the supporters after his untimely death in 2002.

[ichkeria]

There's a statue in Baku to Tofiq Bakhramov, the Azeri linesman who flagged England's third goal in the 1966 World Cup.
When are they going to erect one at Wembley? :-)

[sportingstatues]

The first UK player to have a statue erected to him in terms of the oldest statue was Harold Fleming at Swindon Town FC in 1956

The player from the most distant past to have a statue erected of them is Steve Bloomer at Derby County FC, though William McGregor, not a player but founder of the Football League, has one at Aston Villa
Chris Stride, www.sportingstatues.com

[sportingstatues]

Further to the above, numerous living players have had statues erected to them (Stanley Matthews was alive when the Hanley statue was unveiled though not the Britannia Stadium one; likewise Hugh McIlmoyle at Carlisle, George Hardwick at Middlesbrough and more).

Henry is the only UK-based player to have still been playing when his statue was unveiled: however Johann Cruyff (Holland, Olympic Stadium), Blaise Nkufo (at Twente Enschede, Holland) and Gabriel Batistuta (Fiorentina, Italy) were all still playing when unveiled. Alex Ferguson will no doubt still be managing when his statue is unveiled at Old Trafford this summer.