Billy Meredith...to play the game well a man must be fit.

There is no secret about it at all, from the time I started playing as a schoolboy I've always realized that to play the game well a man must be fit. I've been fit for 25 years, and I feel like going on a long time yet. I never take intoxicants. I do smoke a pipe – and I train regularly two days a week. My training is, and always has been, ball practice. You cannot have too much ball practice, and that is one thing I wish the youngsters of today would take to heart. When I was a boy at school, Mr. Thomas, our master at Chirk, used to impress upon us the value of ball practice. 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 Meredith played his last game for Manchester City  at the age of 49 years 8 months (29th March 1924, v Newcastle United at St Andrew's, Birmingham).
His last international appearance  was at the age of 45 years 8 months (15th March 1920, Wales v England at Highbury).