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Gordon Banks OBE (30 December 1937 - 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional career, and won 73 caps for England, highlighted by starting every game of the nation's 1966 World Cup victory.

Banks joined Chesterfield in March 1953, and played for their youth team in the 1956 FA Youth Cup final. He 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 the club, as they were beaten in the 1961 and 1963 FA Cup finals, before winning the League Cup in 1964 and finishing as finalists in 1965. Despite this success, and his World Cup win in 1966, Banks was dropped by Leicester and sold on to Stoke City for £50,000 in April 1967. In the 1970 World Cup, he made one of the game's great saves to prevent a Pelé goal, but was absent due to illness as England were beaten by West Germany at the quarter-final stage.

Banks was Stoke City's goalkeeper in the 1972 League Cup win, the club's only major honor. He was still Stoke's and England's number one when a car crash in October 1972 cost him both the sight in his right eye and, eventually, his professional career. He played two last seasons in the United States for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 1977 and 1978, and despite only having vision in one eye, was NASL Goalkeeper of the Year in 1977 after posting the best defensive record in the league. He briefly entered management with Telford United, but left the game in December 1980.

Banks was named FWA Footballer of the Year in 1972, and was named FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year on six occasions. The IFFHS named Banks the second-best goalkeeper of the 20th century, after Lev Yashin (1st) and ahead of Dino Zoff (3rd)

He was replaced as Leicester City FC goalkeeper in 1967 by 17-year-old <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0793529/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Peter Shilton</a>, who would also succeed Banks as an England goalkeeper in the 1970s.

He was a FIFA World Cup winner with England in 1966. He made 73 appearances for England as a goalkeeper between 1963 and 1972, which included appearances at two FIFA World Cups (1966 and 1970).

He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1970 Queen&#39;s Birthday Honours List for his services to Association Football.

<a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm1093815/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Alan Ball</a> considered him to be one of England&#39;s five truly world class players in the 1966 World Cup winning squad. The others were <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm1448662/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Ray Wilson</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0600961/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Bobby Moore</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0153282/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Bobby Charlton</a> and <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm1273695/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Jimmy Greaves</a>.

His save from the legendary Brazilian striker <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0671446/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Pelé</a> in the 1970 FIFA World Cup is one of the most famous in the history of the game. It featured prominently in all of the television news obituaries to Banks.

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Gordon Banks

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