Goalie who made the ‘save of the century’
GORDON BANKS, the goalkeeper in England’s 1966 World Cupwinning team, was widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers to have played the game.
Banks won 73 caps for England between 1963 and
1972 and made nearly 200 appearances for Stoke City before his playing career was brought to an end in a car crash that cost him his sight in one eye.
He died on February 12, aged 81.
Banks will probably be best remembered for the diving stop he made to deny Brazil’s Pele at the 1970 World Cup, which later became known as the ‘‘save of the century’’.
Banks played every game in the 1966 World Cup, including the 42 victory over West Germany in the final at Wembley — the only time England has won the world title.
Four years later, though, in Mexico, he produced one of the most outstanding saves in the history of the tournament in a group game in which Brazil beat England 10.
Pele rose to head a cross from the byline by rightwinger Jairzinho, thundering the header down towards Banks’ righthand post.
The ball appeared to be past Banks, but his agility and strength helped him get down and palm it high and wide to safety.
Thirtyeight years later, Pele travelled to Stoke to unveil a statue to Banks and recalled the save.
‘‘From the moment I headed it, I was sure it had gone in,’’ Pele said.
‘‘After I headed the ball, I had already began to jump to celebrate the goal. Then I looked back and I couldn’t believe it hadn’t gone in. I have scored more than a thousand goals in my life, and the thing people always talk to me about is the one I didn’t score.’’
Banks recalled the moment modestly as a piece of good fortune.
‘‘As soon as I got my hand to it, I thought it was going in the top corner,’’ he said.
‘‘But after I’d landed on the hard floor, I looked up and saw the ball bounce behind the net and that’s when I said: Banksy, you lucky prat.’’
Banks was born in Abbeydale, Sheffield, on December 30, 1937, and raised in the workingclass area of Tinsley.
He left school aged 15 and took up employment as a bagger with a local coal merchant, which helped to build up his upper body strength.
He began his professional football career at Chesterfield in 1958 and moved to Leicester City the following year. He won his first England cap in 1963, four years before he joined Stoke.
Banks retired in 1973 following the car crash, aged only 33, but four years later, he returned to play in the North American Soccer League with Fort Lauderdale Strikers.
Named FWA Footballer of the Year in 1972, the year he helped Stoke win the League Cup, Banks was also named Fifa Goalkeeper of the Year six times, and the International Federation of Football History and Statistics rated him the secondbest goalkeeper of the 20th century, after Lev Yashin and ahead of Dino Zoff.
Peter Shilton, the former England goalkeeper who made a record 125 appearances for his country and, like Banks, played for Leicester and Stoke, tweeted: ‘‘I’m devastated — today I’ve lost my hero our condolences to his family RIP Gordon’’.
Former Wales and Everton goalkeeper Neville Southall called Banks ‘‘the perfect goalkeeper’’, and told BBC Radio he would treasure memories of training with Banks.
‘‘As I told my missus at the time, I couldn’t believe I got to train with him,’’ Southall said.
‘‘It was fantastic for me to train and have a cup of tea with him and talk football. It was an education that you couldn’t buy anywhere in the world.
‘‘When I worked with him, he worked hard on technical things, and he thought if your technique was right it wouldn’t matter about anything else.
‘‘He had a fantastic temperament for big games. Sometimes you see people shout and scream, but he wasn’t like that. He was calm and did his job with incredible efficiency.’’
Soon after Banks’ death was announced, football fans and others began taking flowers and scarves to the lifesize statue of him outside the Stoke City stadium. Some touched the statue in reverence, or wiped away tears.
Around the city, where Banks is a revered figure and was often seen at charity and football events, flags were lowered at public buildings, and local radio talkshows were inundated with calls remembering him.
For some, it rankled that Banks was never awarded a knighthood.
‘‘Even though they never knighted him, he was always a Sir to us, and he always will be,’’ said Glen Rushton (67), leaving a wreath at the statue. — Reuters/Wikipedia