Gordon Banks

Lore & Background

Banks was born in Abbeydale, Sheffield, and brought up in Tinsley. He left school at 15 and worked as a bagger for a coal merchant. He played for amateur side Millspaugh and later for Rawmarsh Welfare. He joined Chesterfield in March 1953, made his first-team debut in November 1958, and was sold to Leicester City for £7,000 in July 1959. He played in four cup finals for Leicester, winning the League Cup in 1964. He was sold to Stoke City for £50,000 in April 1967. In the 1970 World Cup, he made a famous save to prevent a Pelé goal. A car crash in October 1972 cost him the sight in his right eye and ended his professional career. He played for Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 1977 and 1978, and was NASL Goalkeeper of the Year in 1977. He briefly managed Telford United, leaving in December 1980.

In Their Own Story

The Azteca was a cauldron of noise, the air thick and heavy in the Mexican afternoon. Banks stood in his white shirt, hands on his hips, watching the ball arc high into the box. He saw the shape of it — the weight, the trajectory — and before it even reached the head of the Brazilian number 10, his body was already coiling. The header came in like a hammer blow, aimed at the top corner. Banks did not think. He simply went. His fingers, impossibly, found the ball. He turned it. It kissed the crossbar and spilled wide, and the roar that followed was not for Brazil. It was for the man in white who had, for one suspended moment, made the impossible look almost routine. He landed on his shoulder, rolled, and was up before the next kick was taken. No one in the England camp would ever forget that half-second.

Reader's Guide

Banks was named FWA Footballer of the Year in 1972 and FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year on six occasions. The IFFHS named him the second-best goalkeeper of the 20th century, after Lev Yashin.

Did You Know?

• Banks started every game of England's 1966 World Cup victory.
• He made one of the game's greatest saves to prevent a Pelé goal in the 1970 World Cup.
• Despite losing sight in his right eye in a car crash, he was NASL Goalkeeper of the Year in 1977.