Gordon Banks

English goalkeeper, World Cup winner, and one of the greatest of all time.

Across a 20-year professional career, Banks accumulated 679 appearances and earned 73 caps for England, participating in every match of the 1966 World Cup victory.^[1]

Last updated 2026-09-30 from the source article.

Quick Facts

Born: 30 December 1937
Birthplace: Sheffield, England
Died: 12 February 2019
Place of death: Madeley, Staffordshire, England
Position: Goalkeeper

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

He left school at age 15 and worked as a bagger for a coal merchant, then as a hod carrier.^[2][3] On 22 October 1972, a car crash damaged his right eye, and he retired from professional football the following summer.^[4] Banks came into the world on 30 December 1937 in Abbeydale, Sheffield, and grew up in the Tinsley working-class district.^[2] Leicester City acquired Banks for £7,000 in July 1959.^[5]

During the 1970 World Cup, Banks produced a celebrated save that denied Pelé a goal, yet illness kept him from the quarter-final match.^[5] At age 81, Banks passed away from cancer on 12 February 2019 at his Madeley, Staffordshire residence.^[6]

What the cited sources add

A 2004 BBC Stoke & Staffordshire feature states that author Don Mullan wrote about Gordon Banks's influence on his life.^[7]

References

Wikipedia, "Gordon Banks" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Gordon Banks | National Football Museum Hall of Fame profile" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Gordon Banks" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; ; ; ; ; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Gordon Banks" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Gordon Banks" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Gordon Banks", planetworldcup.com; ; ; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Gordon Banks" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gordon Banks: International Football Hall of Fame Retrieved 10 May 2011; Hattenstone, "And God created Pelé", The Guardian, 30 June 2003; Gordon BANKS: The keeper who stunned the King FIFA. Retrieved 10 May 2011 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Gordon Banks" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Press Association, "Gordon Banks facing second battle with kidney cancer", The Guardian, 13 December 2015; Taylor, "Banks, Gordon (1937–2019), footballer", 2023; "Gordon Banks: World Cup winning goalkeeper dies aged 81", BBC Sport, 12 February 2019; Glanville, "Gordon Banks obituary", The Guardian, 12 February 2019 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
"Gordon Banks – a hero who could fly", BBC Stoke & Staffordshire, 2004. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Gordon Banks (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.