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Goal.com's Top 50 English Players: Gordon Banks (4)
Goal.com's top 50 countdown of the greatest English players continues with a man at number four who was actually England's best ever number one - Gordon Banks...
| Bet: | Returns: | Fulham £19.50 | Draw £34.00 | Stoke City £37.50 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Fulham £19.10 | Draw £34.00 | Stoke City £40.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Fulham £20.50 | Draw £33.00 | Stoke City £37.50 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Fulham £20.00 | Draw £32.50 | Stoke City £40.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Fulham £20.40 | Draw £34.00 | Stoke City £40.00 |
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Jun 24, 2009 5:45:32 PM
No.50 - John Terry
No.48 - Terry Butcher
No.47 - Gerry Hitchens
No.46 - Paul Ince
No.45 - George Camsell
No.44 - Wayne Rooney
No.43 - Jackie Milburn
No.42 - Roger Hunt
No.41 - Rio Ferdinand
No.40 - Wilf Mannion
No.39 - Frank Lampard
No.38 - John Barnes
No.37 - Nat Lofthouse
No.36 - Eddie Hapgood
No.35 - Chris Waddle
No.34 - David Platt
No.33 - Phil Neal
No.32 - Johnny Haynes
No.31 - Peter Beardsley
No.30 - Ray Clemence
No.29 - Ted Drake
No.28 - Michael Owen
No.27 - Raich Carter
No.26 - Colin Bell
No.25 – Frank Swift
No.24 - Paul Scholes
No.23 - Tony Adams
No.22 - Martin Peters
No.21 - Billy Wright
No.20 - Geoff Hurst
No.19 - Cliff Bastin No.16 - Bryan Robson
No.15 - Alan Shearer
No.14 - Paul Gascoigne
No.13 - David Beckham
No.12 - Dixie Dean
No.11 - Alan Ball
No.10 - Peter Shilton
No. 9 - Gary Lineker
No. 8 - Duncan Edwards
No. 7 - Kevin Keegan
No. 6 - Jimmy Greaves
No. 5 - Tom Finney
Gordon BANKS
Born: 20 December 1937, Sheffield
England: 76 caps, 35 clean sheets
Clubs: Chesterfield, Leicester City, Stoke City, Fort Lauderdale Strikers
'Safe as the Banks of England' was a headline-writer's dream, but it also perfectly conveyed the sense of security that Gordon Banks - England's best-ever goalkeeper, and arguably the world's - instilled in managers, outfield players and fans of every team he played for.
He remains England's only World Cup winning keeper after his heroics in 1966; his save against Brazil's Pele in Mexico four years later is widely regarded as the greatest ever, and his subsequent illness during those 1970 World Cup finals is generally cited as the reason why England missed out on a second successive final.
The International Federation of Football History & Statistics elected Banks second best goalkeeper of the 20th Century, after Lev Yashin (1st) and before Dino Zoff (3rd). Many would dispute that Yashin was better; it is highly debatable that the Russian was more reliable, more consistent or more agile between the posts. Banks routinely produced superb reflex saves and had an uncanny ability to read attackers' intentions and position himself accordingly to thwart them.
His success was based in part on dedicated training. Banks would often ask his England team-mates to stay behind to take shots at him. "He would never let anything in," recalled Alan Ball, "so finally we told him that he was shattering our confidence… At times, Gordon was simply unbeatable."
Born in Sheffield in 1937, Banks was drawn to goalkeeping, studying the keepers' craft from an early age and representing Sheffield Boys, although not contemplating a career in football when he left school. He worked as a coal bagger and bricklayer, and was watching an amateur game when he was asked to deputise for a goalkeeper who hadn't turned up. That prompted him to begin playing for a local colliery side, and in 1955 he was offered a part-time professional role with Chesterfield. A year later he was in goal when they reached the FA Youth Cup final, losing 4-3 on aggregate to a Manchester United team that included future World Cup winning colleague, Bobby Charlton.
After National Service with the Army's Royal Signals, Banks signed
full-time for Chesterfield, but had played just 23 games for the
Spireites in the Third Division North before Leicester City paid £7,000
for him in summer 1959.
By the end of his first season he was the Foxes' number one, and in 1960-61 was in Leicester's FA Cup final side beaten 2-0 at Wembley by double-winning Tottenham Hotspur. Continuing to establish himself in top-flight football, Banks was called into the England squad by recently-appointed manager Alf Ramsey in April 1963, making his debut against Scotland and earning favourable reviews. A month later, he was in another Wembley FA Cup final with Leicester, this time losing 3-1 to Manchester United.
However, in 1964 Banks won his first club honour as Leicester beat Stoke City 4-3 in a two-legged League Cup final. They lost the 1965 final to Chelsea; but by then Banks was virtually unchallenged as England's first-choice goalkeeper.
He went into the 1966 World Cup in commanding form, and kept a clean sheet in each of England's three group games. Another shut-out followed against Argentina in the quarter-final, making it seven in a row, an England record. It wasn't until Eusebio’s consolation penalty for Portugal in the 82nd minute of the semi-final that Banks was beaten. His greatest triumph came with his 33rd cap, against West Germany in the final, when he became a world champion at the age of 28.
Yet despite that triumph, at club level he was facing growing competition from his young protege at Leicester, Peter Shilton. Although the man in front of him was now recognised as the world's number one keeper, Shilton told Leicester that he wouldn't sign professional forms with them unless they guaranteed him first team football. So in 1967, Foxes' boss Matt Gillies let Banks go. He'd played 293 League games for Leicester and won 37 international caps.
Remarkably, although Liverpool wanted him, it wasn't one of England's title-chasing big guns that signed Banks, but Stoke City from the middle reaches of the old First Division. The fee was a bargain £52,000.
Banks maintained his place in the national team, who came third in
the 1968 European Championships, and two years later was heading for
the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico with the holders.
England opened their group games by beating Romania. Next up were tournament favourites Brazil, boasting arguably their best-ever team. Shortly before kick-off, Banks was informed by manager Ramsey (now Sir Alf) that the Queen was awarding him the OBE. Ten minutes after it, he produced the save that wrote his name into football legend.
A right-wing cross from the by-line to the far post by Jairzinho saw Banks, guarding the near post, swiftly reassessing the situation and his own positioning as Pele rose to meet the ball with a header, confidently shouting ‘Goal!’ as he did so. In his autobigraphy, Banks recalled, "Pele got above the ball and powered it low and hard towards the corner of the net. It was the perfect header. I was now into a dive to my right and as the ball hit the ground just in front of my goal-line I flicked it with my outstretched right hand as it came up."
To universal astonishment, the Banks-propelled ball rose and cleared the crossbar for a corner. Photographs captured the athleticism, agility and sheer determination of the goalkeeper, freezing in time a moment that Pele would tell everyone was the greatest save he ever saw.
Jairzinho did eventually get a shot past Banks, whom the Mexican newspapers had christened 'El Magnifico', but both teams progressed to the quarter-finals, where England were again paired with West Germany. Shortly before the game Banks was struck down with food poisoning, and Ramsey decided he couldn't risk him. Peter Bonetti was drafted in, and the nauseous Banks confined to bed.
England took a commanding 2-0 lead, but lost their way in the heat, with Bonetti enduring a nightmare as the Germans completed a dramatic comeback to win 3-2. England were out of the tournament, leaving Ramsey to rue Banks’ stomach bug, saying, "Of all the players to lose, we had to lose him."
In each of the following two seasons, Banks endured the disappointment of losing an FA Cup semi-final replay - on both occasions to Arsenal; but in 1972 he produced another phenomenal save from a Geoff Hurst penalty as Stoke beat West Ham in a League Cup semi-final. In the Wembley final against Chelsea, Banks helped Stoke win their first ever trophy. That year, at the peak of his ability, he was also voted Footballer of the Year, becoming the first goalkeeper so honoured since his boyhood hero Bert Trautman in 1956.
Disaster struck, though, five months later, when Banks lost the sight of his right eye in a road accident. He battled to save his career, but realised that without binocular vision he could never regain the exceptional standards of goalkeeping he had set himself. His top-flight career was over.
He'd played 510 League games, and 73 times for England, who lost only nine of those matches. Banks conceded 57 goals for his country, an average of just 0.78 goals per game, keeping 35 clean sheets.
Some scouting, coaching at Stoke and Port Vale, managing non-league
Telford United, and working on commercial aspects of football followed,
but in 1977 and 1978 he played for Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the
North American Soccer League. Despite his handicap, Banks was voted the
League's most valuable goalkeeper.
In 2001, he auctioned his World Cup Winner's medal, which fetched £124,750, because he wanted to spare his children the decision of what to do with it after his death; he divided the proceeds between them. His international cap from that 1966 final was also sold in the same auction, fetching £27,025.
Banks became an inaugural inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002, and the same year was inducted into his hometown's new 'Walk of Fame' as a 'Sheffield Legend'.
HONOURS
World Cup winner - 1966
League Cup winner - 1964, 1972
FWA Footballer of the Year - 1972
Awarded the OBE - 1970
Sportsman of the Year - 1972
DID YOU KNOW...That Irish humanitarian, film-maker and writer Don Mullan published a boyhood memoir in 2006 titled Gordon Banks: A Hero Who Could Fly, describing the influence the England goalkeeper had on his life? Amidst the Irish 'Troubles', the English hero unknowingly helped turn the teenaged Mullan away from violence. Banks launched Mullan's book in Dublin, Derry and at the Britannia Stadium in Stoke, and has described Mullan as 'my greatest fan'. Mullan was instrumental in getting a monument to Banks erected outside the Potters' ground.
Graham Lister, Goal.com
No.48 - Terry Butcher
No.47 - Gerry Hitchens
No.46 - Paul Ince
No.45 - George Camsell
No.44 - Wayne Rooney
No.43 - Jackie Milburn
No.42 - Roger Hunt
No.41 - Rio Ferdinand
No.40 - Wilf Mannion
No.39 - Frank Lampard
No.38 - John Barnes
No.37 - Nat Lofthouse
No.36 - Eddie Hapgood
No.35 - Chris Waddle
No.34 - David Platt
No.33 - Phil Neal
No.32 - Johnny Haynes
No.31 - Peter Beardsley
No.30 - Ray Clemence
No.29 - Ted Drake
No.28 - Michael Owen
No.27 - Raich Carter
No.26 - Colin Bell
No.25 – Frank Swift
No.24 - Paul Scholes
No.23 - Tony Adams
No.22 - Martin Peters
No.21 - Billy Wright
No.20 - Geoff Hurst
No.19 - Cliff Bastin No.16 - Bryan Robson
No.15 - Alan Shearer
No.14 - Paul Gascoigne
No.13 - David Beckham
No.12 - Dixie Dean
No.11 - Alan Ball
No.10 - Peter Shilton
No. 9 - Gary Lineker
No. 8 - Duncan Edwards
No. 7 - Kevin Keegan
No. 6 - Jimmy Greaves
No. 5 - Tom Finney
Gordon BANKS
Born: 20 December 1937, Sheffield
England: 76 caps, 35 clean sheets
Clubs: Chesterfield, Leicester City, Stoke City, Fort Lauderdale Strikers
'Safe as the Banks of England' was a headline-writer's dream, but it also perfectly conveyed the sense of security that Gordon Banks - England's best-ever goalkeeper, and arguably the world's - instilled in managers, outfield players and fans of every team he played for.
He remains England's only World Cup winning keeper after his heroics in 1966; his save against Brazil's Pele in Mexico four years later is widely regarded as the greatest ever, and his subsequent illness during those 1970 World Cup finals is generally cited as the reason why England missed out on a second successive final.
The International Federation of Football History & Statistics elected Banks second best goalkeeper of the 20th Century, after Lev Yashin (1st) and before Dino Zoff (3rd). Many would dispute that Yashin was better; it is highly debatable that the Russian was more reliable, more consistent or more agile between the posts. Banks routinely produced superb reflex saves and had an uncanny ability to read attackers' intentions and position himself accordingly to thwart them.
His success was based in part on dedicated training. Banks would often ask his England team-mates to stay behind to take shots at him. "He would never let anything in," recalled Alan Ball, "so finally we told him that he was shattering our confidence… At times, Gordon was simply unbeatable."
Born in Sheffield in 1937, Banks was drawn to goalkeeping, studying the keepers' craft from an early age and representing Sheffield Boys, although not contemplating a career in football when he left school. He worked as a coal bagger and bricklayer, and was watching an amateur game when he was asked to deputise for a goalkeeper who hadn't turned up. That prompted him to begin playing for a local colliery side, and in 1955 he was offered a part-time professional role with Chesterfield. A year later he was in goal when they reached the FA Youth Cup final, losing 4-3 on aggregate to a Manchester United team that included future World Cup winning colleague, Bobby Charlton.
 |
By the end of his first season he was the Foxes' number one, and in 1960-61 was in Leicester's FA Cup final side beaten 2-0 at Wembley by double-winning Tottenham Hotspur. Continuing to establish himself in top-flight football, Banks was called into the England squad by recently-appointed manager Alf Ramsey in April 1963, making his debut against Scotland and earning favourable reviews. A month later, he was in another Wembley FA Cup final with Leicester, this time losing 3-1 to Manchester United.
However, in 1964 Banks won his first club honour as Leicester beat Stoke City 4-3 in a two-legged League Cup final. They lost the 1965 final to Chelsea; but by then Banks was virtually unchallenged as England's first-choice goalkeeper.
He went into the 1966 World Cup in commanding form, and kept a clean sheet in each of England's three group games. Another shut-out followed against Argentina in the quarter-final, making it seven in a row, an England record. It wasn't until Eusebio’s consolation penalty for Portugal in the 82nd minute of the semi-final that Banks was beaten. His greatest triumph came with his 33rd cap, against West Germany in the final, when he became a world champion at the age of 28.
Yet despite that triumph, at club level he was facing growing competition from his young protege at Leicester, Peter Shilton. Although the man in front of him was now recognised as the world's number one keeper, Shilton told Leicester that he wouldn't sign professional forms with them unless they guaranteed him first team football. So in 1967, Foxes' boss Matt Gillies let Banks go. He'd played 293 League games for Leicester and won 37 international caps.
Remarkably, although Liverpool wanted him, it wasn't one of England's title-chasing big guns that signed Banks, but Stoke City from the middle reaches of the old First Division. The fee was a bargain £52,000.
CAREER HIGHLIGHT
 Spirit of 1966 |
England opened their group games by beating Romania. Next up were tournament favourites Brazil, boasting arguably their best-ever team. Shortly before kick-off, Banks was informed by manager Ramsey (now Sir Alf) that the Queen was awarding him the OBE. Ten minutes after it, he produced the save that wrote his name into football legend.
A right-wing cross from the by-line to the far post by Jairzinho saw Banks, guarding the near post, swiftly reassessing the situation and his own positioning as Pele rose to meet the ball with a header, confidently shouting ‘Goal!’ as he did so. In his autobigraphy, Banks recalled, "Pele got above the ball and powered it low and hard towards the corner of the net. It was the perfect header. I was now into a dive to my right and as the ball hit the ground just in front of my goal-line I flicked it with my outstretched right hand as it came up."
To universal astonishment, the Banks-propelled ball rose and cleared the crossbar for a corner. Photographs captured the athleticism, agility and sheer determination of the goalkeeper, freezing in time a moment that Pele would tell everyone was the greatest save he ever saw.
Jairzinho did eventually get a shot past Banks, whom the Mexican newspapers had christened 'El Magnifico', but both teams progressed to the quarter-finals, where England were again paired with West Germany. Shortly before the game Banks was struck down with food poisoning, and Ramsey decided he couldn't risk him. Peter Bonetti was drafted in, and the nauseous Banks confined to bed.
England took a commanding 2-0 lead, but lost their way in the heat, with Bonetti enduring a nightmare as the Germans completed a dramatic comeback to win 3-2. England were out of the tournament, leaving Ramsey to rue Banks’ stomach bug, saying, "Of all the players to lose, we had to lose him."
In each of the following two seasons, Banks endured the disappointment of losing an FA Cup semi-final replay - on both occasions to Arsenal; but in 1972 he produced another phenomenal save from a Geoff Hurst penalty as Stoke beat West Ham in a League Cup semi-final. In the Wembley final against Chelsea, Banks helped Stoke win their first ever trophy. That year, at the peak of his ability, he was also voted Footballer of the Year, becoming the first goalkeeper so honoured since his boyhood hero Bert Trautman in 1956.
Disaster struck, though, five months later, when Banks lost the sight of his right eye in a road accident. He battled to save his career, but realised that without binocular vision he could never regain the exceptional standards of goalkeeping he had set himself. His top-flight career was over.
He'd played 510 League games, and 73 times for England, who lost only nine of those matches. Banks conceded 57 goals for his country, an average of just 0.78 goals per game, keeping 35 clean sheets.
 |
In 2001, he auctioned his World Cup Winner's medal, which fetched £124,750, because he wanted to spare his children the decision of what to do with it after his death; he divided the proceeds between them. His international cap from that 1966 final was also sold in the same auction, fetching £27,025.
Banks became an inaugural inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002, and the same year was inducted into his hometown's new 'Walk of Fame' as a 'Sheffield Legend'.
HONOURS
World Cup winner - 1966
League Cup winner - 1964, 1972
FWA Footballer of the Year - 1972
Awarded the OBE - 1970
Sportsman of the Year - 1972
DID YOU KNOW...That Irish humanitarian, film-maker and writer Don Mullan published a boyhood memoir in 2006 titled Gordon Banks: A Hero Who Could Fly, describing the influence the England goalkeeper had on his life? Amidst the Irish 'Troubles', the English hero unknowingly helped turn the teenaged Mullan away from violence. Banks launched Mullan's book in Dublin, Derry and at the Britannia Stadium in Stoke, and has described Mullan as 'my greatest fan'. Mullan was instrumental in getting a monument to Banks erected outside the Potters' ground.
Graham Lister, Goal.com
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