Gordon Banks is the goalkeeper whose name is known to all British football fans. This is a legendary player that everyone remembers. A man whose career was far from the very first days of his appearances in football. However, in the end everything turned out to be the best possible, and today absolutely everyone remembers the save of Gordon Banks after the blow of Pele - as well as very, very many saves that he made during his rather long career. So, how was the football life of this great and legendary goalkeeper?
Carier start
Given the fact that Gordon Banks was born in 1937, not much information is available about how the career of this famous goalkeeper began. It is only known that in 1955, when the boy was eighteen years old, he received his first professional contract with the Chesterfield club, which then played in the Third League. However, this contract did not mean that Gordon would have the opportunity to play at the base - he was always on the bench all the time. Then the world of football was completely different, so Banks was sitting quietly in reserve and waiting for his opportunity, which only appeared to him in 1958. Gordon Banks, who was 21 at that time, played 26 matches at the Chesterfield goal and, naturally, attracted the attention of a much more serious club, Leicester, with his beautiful game. It was an incredible leap for the goalkeeper, because from the third division he immediately went up to the rather strong club of the first division. It was there that the career of young talent began to develop.
Success at Leicester
In the new club, Gordon Banks spent almost all of his young years - he defended the colors of Leicester for eight years. During this time he played 356 matches and was repeatedly recognized as the best goalkeeper. From the very first to the very last day, he remained the main goalkeeper, and largely thanks to him in 1964, Leicester was able to win an important trophy - the League Cup. And despite the fact that this club almost never won trophies. Moreover, in 1961 and 1963, “Leicester” managed to reach the final of the FA Cup, and in 1965 the “foxes” were practically able to take the League Cup for the second year in a row, but still lost in the final.
While at Leicester, Banks received his first call to England in 1963. With her, he won the UK home championship eight times, held in those years between the four participating countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
However, the most important thing was that in 1966, Gordon Banks, the best goalkeeper of the 20th century according to many British publications, together with the England team won the World Cup. And he was not just one of the players - he really was the best. It was he who was included in the team of the best football players of 1966 as a goalkeeper, and was also first recognized as the best goalkeeper in the world. And this was the beginning of his dominance - after that he was recognized the first goalkeeper of the world six more times in a row, and in 1972 he was generally recognized as the best football player in the world (and not just the goalkeeper).
However, it is worth going back a little and paying attention to the 1966/67 season, which took place after the triumphal World Cup. He was the last for Banks in Leicester - the club took a step forward and moved to Stoke City.
The heyday of Stoke City
When Gordon Banks, whose saves were still simply breathtaking, moved to Stoke City, he was only thirty years old - the age at which goalkeepers begin to blossom. As mentioned earlier, Banks was awarded the title of the best goalkeeper in the world every year of his stay at this club. Over the five years spent in Stoke, Banks played 250 matches, although it is worth noting that eleven of them came in the last season, in which he practically did not go on the field due to an injury. In his penultimate season in 1972, Banks and his club took the only trophy - the League Cup. In addition, while the goalkeeper played for Stoke, he, together with the England national team, took the bronze medals of the 1968 European Championship.
But now it's time to return to the sad 1972, when the 35-year-old acting best player in the world had to end his professional career. Why did the great goalkeeper Gordon Banks take such a step? Photos of this British hero have been in every sports magazine for the past seven years, and he was still ready to play for at least five years. What happened?
Retirement
The fact is that the career of this player not only began, but ended not in the happiest way. Much had to be transferred to such a player as Gordon Banks. His biography is sad for the reason that in the fall of 1972 a goalkeeper who received a hand injury returned home from the clinic by car. According to the forecasts of the doctors, everything should have been in order with the hand, it should have healed soon, but the unexpected happened - Banks lost control and the car drove off the road.
The goalkeeper was taken to the clinic, where he underwent a difficult operation - more than two hundred stitches were put on his face, and more than a hundred were in the eye. After a period of recovery, the diagnosis was disappointing - the doctors told the British football legend that he would never see it like before. That is why goalkeeper Gordon Banks made such a difficult decision. Football was everything for him - and he suddenly lost absolutely everything.
Career renewal
In 1977, five years after the tragic accident and the end of his career, Gordon Banks was invited to the USA, to the North American Football League, where he became the goalkeeper-superstar of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers club. He coped with his task perfectly - for two seasons he was the main goalkeeper of the club, and in one of them he became the best goalkeeper, having conceded 29 goals in 26 matches, which became the highest indicator in the history of the league at that time.
Rent
Banks has been leased three times in his career. This happened for the first time in 1967, when he went for six months to the United States of America, to the Cleveland Stokers club, where he played twelve matches. The next rental happened in 1971. For a couple of months, the British goalkeeper went to South Africa, where he played for the local club "Hellenic". Well, in 1977, he spent five months in the Irish club St. Patricks Athletic, but played only one match, which, incidentally, defended to zero. Returning to America, he finished the season to the end and finally announced the final completion of his football career.
Coaching
Having finished his football career, Gordon Banks, like many of the players, tried to become a coach, returning to his native England. He was appointed head coach of the Port Vale club, but quickly turned out to be demoted to coach of the second team. In 1979, he took control of the Telford United team, but a year later he had to go to the hospital and then go through a difficult operation, which distracted him from football.
During this time, his substitute lowered the club as low as it could be done, and Banks was simply fired as a result, offering in return a position as a ticket seller for half the salary and without paying what was supposed to be for the coach’s work. For the legend, it was a very strong blow, and he refused further work in the football field. Two years later, he became a goalkeeper coach at Stoke City for a short period of time, but it was more of a hobby than a career, so Banks quit his job pretty quickly.
What he is doing now?
To date, the legend of British football is 78 years old, he lives in a private house in Britain with his family and, as promised earlier, has nothing to do with football. Well, or almost nothing - now he is the honorary president of the Stoke City club. This cannot be considered a full-fledged football activity, since no decisions are required from him - he simply serves as a club legend.
Health status
To date, no one can say for sure whether Gordon Banks can for a long time remain a living legend of Stoke City and all of British football. The fact is that in December last year it was announced that the former goalkeeper had kidney cancer, and now he is going through treatment procedures. So far, the forecasts are positive, but no one can say with certainty how the body of a 78-year-old man will cope with the disease. Therefore, one can only hope that Gordon Banks will cope with the disease and live as long as possible both for his family and his friends, and for the entire British nation, which literally prays for what this man has done for British football.