BANKS OF ENGLAND
KEVIN HALLS PAYS HIS PERSONAL TRIBUTE TO THE LATE, GREAT GORDON BANKS WHO DIED RECENTLY AT THE AGE OF 81...
Kevin Halls’ tribute
SADLY, another football legend and icon has passed away. Gordon Banks was, without doubt, one of the greatest goalkeepers of all-time.
In my opinion, he ranks alongside the great Russian Lev Yashin - they were both fantastic keepers.
Born in Sheffield in 1937, Gordon left school aged 15 to work in a local coal merchant, where he grafted as a coal bagger, hard physical work.
He went on to be employed as a ditch-digger and as a hod-carrier on building sites. All this hard manual work gave the 6ft 1in tall Banksy a strong muscular physique.
Later on in his life as a top class keeper, this would come in useful between the sticks. He played in an era when goalkeepers didn’t get the protection they do now.
Banks started his career at Chesterfield in 1959. He made 23 appearances for them before, after just one season, joining Leicester City for £7,000.
He went on to play for the Foxes 293 times between 1959 and 1967, and he played in two FA Cup Finals (1961 and 1963), losing on both occasions.
But in 1964 he picked up a winner’s medal, when Leicester won the League Cup final. They beat Stoke City to earn their first major trophy.
But it was in 1966 that Gordon Banks became a household name, as he played his full part in England’s World Cup win on home soil.
Banksy was in goal for every game in the tournament, culminating in the Three Lions lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy.
Every young football fan wanted to be Gordon Banks when having a kickabout with their mates. They’d dive through the air pretending to be him, and I was no exception!
I was fortunate to have seen him play for Leicester City against my club Coventry City. I was only about ten at the time, stood with my dad on the Highfield Road terraces, but how would I ever forget this match?
It was the quarter-final of the League Cup in season 64-65 and we got thrashed 8-1! It’s amazing I carried on supporting the Sky Blues. The first time I’d watched Banks in action is one etched in my memory for all the wrong reasons.
Despite all his heroics for England in ’66 and FIFA naming him Goalkeeper of the Year, Leicester decided to sell him to Stoke City for £52,500 in 1967.
Maybe it was because they had a young lad called Peter Shilton on their books, he was getting rave reviews and looking like a future international himself. Stoke decided to cash in even though Banks was still only 28.
But going to the Potteries turned out to be a good move as he became a Stoke legend, making 250 appearances.
He lifted the League Cup again in 1972 when Stoke beat Chelsea and, whether or not it was a dig at Leicester for selling him, Gordon described it as “my greatest and proudest moment in club football”.
But in that same year he was involved in a car crash which left him with serious head injuries, and resulted in him becoming blind in his right eye.
It left him and his family devastated. For a top goalkeeper who relied on his vision to catch a ball and to cover angles etc, this was horrendous.
He had to make the awful decision to no longer play in goal for Stoke. They offered him a job as a coach of the youth team.
It was while he was coaching the kids that he became aware that his left eye was compensating for the loss of sight in the other.
His sight still wasn’t great, but he felt he could still function as a goalie. To do so, he had to go to America, where Fort Lauderdale Strikers took a chance on him.
And in the season of 77-78, he helped them win the North American Soccer League.
As successful as this was, he decided it was time he tried his hand at management. He came back to England to become manager of Non-League Telford United. Sadly, it never worked out and after just one season he was sacked.
He took that badly as he had put a lot of hard work and effort into the club.
But who can talk about Gordon Banks without mentioning ‘that save’? The one when the great commentator David Coleman shouted out during the match between England and Brazil in the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico “What A Save!”
Pele sent his powerful header towards the corner of the net and it looked a certain goal, but somehow Banks goes down and miraculously scoops it up and over the bar!
It has rightly been classed as the greatest save ever. It defied logic - I’ve watched it over and over again and I still am in awe at this wonder save.
Pele went up to Banks and said, “I thought it was a goal.” Banks replied, “You and me both.” Bobby Moore said to Banksy, “You’re getting old, you used to hold on to them!”
There are some great keepers playing today, but Gordon Banks, in my opinion, is better than all of them.
He earned 73 caps for England, made 628 club appearances and was FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year six years running between 1966-71.
And add to the list an OBE from a distinguished 15-year career.
Yet he should have been knighted for services to football, and it is somewhat of a mystery why he never played for a big club here in England?
In conclusion, Gordon Banks is a football legend, a word used too freely these days. In Banksy’s case, it is well deserved.
What a save, what a keeper!