HAPPY BIRTHDAY BANKSY

Happy Birthday Gordon Banks, for the 30th, born 1937 in Sheffield. He played youth football for local Rawmarsh and he joined Chesterfield in 1953 as a youth player, eventually making over 550 appearances mainly for the Spireites (1958 first team debut in November-9), Leicester City (59-67), Stoke City (67-73) and then Fort Lauderdale, finishing his career in 1977 after a dreadful car accident when he lost the sight of one eye.
He started his career earning £3 per week, he carried coal sacks to toughen himself up and was a hod carrier on a local building site. By the end of his career after several financial mishaps he had to sell his World Cup Winners' Medal for £124,750 and his international cap for the final for £27,025. He turned out 73 times for his country.
Joining Leicester for £7,000 he played in the 1961 FA Cup Final losing against the Spurs and then he played in 1963 defeat to Manchester United.
There was a League Cup win 1964 and another loss in 1965. He was then sold to Stoke for £70,000 and made his memorable save against Pele in the 1970 World Cup. In this tournament he was prevented from playing in the quarter-final against West Germany through "illness". Some say he was sabotaged. Peter Bonetti took his place and England lost!
In May 1971 Banks played at Wembley against Malta and did not receive one ball from an opposition player during the 90 minutes. He fielded the ball only TWICE from back passes from colleagues.
In 1972 Stoke won the League Cup and he finished his career in 1973 after the car crash in October 1972. Banks then spent time in the USA retiring in 1978. There were some management attempts mainly at Telford United. This was not a great success, so he gracefully retired in 1980.
Here are his best saves.....stick with the jazz that will lead you to his save against Pele.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzcfppUKhb8
and next, a nice chat by Gordon describing the "save".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FjkJ_HoxL4