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Gordon
Banks
(England)
England has produced a long line of goalkeeping
legends over the years. The best of them all was
Gordon Banks. Born in Sheffield, he joined third
division side Chesterfield as a part-time pro in 1955.
After four years, Banks was ready for bigger tasks and
joined Leicester City in 1959 for £7000. It was at
Filbert Street he started to show his class. Banks and
Leicester reached the final of the FA Cup in his
second season, but lost to Spurs who completed The
Double that year.
Having lost another FA
Cup final in 1963, Gordon finally could pick up a
winner’s medal in the League Cup the following year.
Banks was in the England team by now and started to
make his name world wide. England hosted the World Cup
in the summer of 1966. Banks experienced his finest
weeks as a footballer when his team reached the final
having just conceded one goal, a penalty from
Portugal’s Eusebio. He really lived up to his
nickname Banks of England. Gordon was as safe between
the posts as money in the bank of England! After a
dramatic final against West Germany, England could
lift the World Cup for the first and so far only time.
Banks was the best goalkeeper in the tournament.
England travelled to
Mexico to defend their title in 1970. If Banks was
famous for winning the World Cup in 1966, he would
become even more so after this tournament. Much thanks
to an incident called ‘The Save of the Century’.
England played Brazil in the first round and a
Jairzinho cross from the right was met perfectly by
Pelé who headed it down towards Gordon’s bottom
right corner. As the ball hit the ground in front of
the goalline, he managed to flick it with his
outstreched right hand as it came up. The ball rose
over the bar for a corner. Despite this save, England
lost 1-0 and later would lose 3-2 against West Germany
in the quarterfinal when Banks was sidelined with an
injury.
It was a car accident
which made him blind on his right eye that caused his
retirement in 1972. Just months earlier he had been
voted England’s Player of the Year and also won
another League Cup with his club Stoke City. Gordon
Banks kept 35 clean sheets and only let in 57 goals in
his 73 appearances for England. A proud record for one
of the greatest goalkeepers the world has ever seen.
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