page_title: Gordon Banks
section_title: 1970 World Cup
hierarchical_section_title: Gordon Banks / International career / 1970 World Cup
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Gordon Banks en 1970 - WORLD CUP 1970
context_page_description: Gordon Banks OBE was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. 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, he 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 honour. He was still Stoke 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.
context_section_description: Banks went into the 1970 World Cup as England's number one with 59 caps to his name, and had Peter Bonetti (six caps) and Alex Stepney (one cap) as his understudies. He found the heat and altitude at Guadalajara, Mexico difficult to cope with. The team's efforts at acclimatisation were not helped when Bobby Moore was falsely accused of stealing the infamous "Bogotá Bracelet". Despite this, a Geoff Hurst goal was enough to beat their first opponents, Romania. A far tougher test awaited on 7 June, when England faced Brazil. The day before the match Banks was informed that he had been awarded an OBE.
  Playing at pace, Brazil were putting England under enormous pressure and an attack was begun by captain Carlos Alberto who sent a low ball down the right flank for the speedy Jairzinho to latch on to. The Brazilian winger sped past left-back Terry Cooper and crossed the ball into the six-yard box, where Pelé connected with a powerful header to send the ball low towards the right-hand corner of the goal. In the knowledge that his header was placed to perfection, Pelé immediately shouted "Gol!" (Brazilian Portuguese for goal).
  The split-second incident only allowed Banks time for one conscious thought – that the shot was impossible to catch, and the only way to prevent Pelé from following up on the rebound would be to parry the ball over the bar. The ball bounced two yards in front of the goal-line, and Banks managed to make contact with the ball with the fingers of his right hand, and rolled his hand slightly to angle the ball over the crossbar. He landed in the inner netting of the goal, and knew he had saved the ball after seeing Pelé's reaction. Banks then rose to his feet to defend the corner, and broke into laughter after the following exchange:
  "I thought that was a goal." (Pelé)
  "You and me both." (Banks)
  "You're getting old, Banksy, you used to hold on to them." (Bobby Moore)
  Pelé, and numerous journalists and pundits, would later describe the save as the greatest in the history of the game. Banks later said "They won't remember me for winning the World Cup, it'll be for that save. That's how big a thing it is. People just want to talk about that save." In 2002 the UK public voted the save No. 41 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.
  Brazil won the game 1–0 after Jairzinho beat Banks in the second half. England ultimately joined Brazil in the last eight after a win in the final group game against Czechoslovakia. The reward was a rematch of the 1966 final against West Germany.
  The day before the game Banks' and England's hopes of making further inroads into the World Cup were dented when he started to complain of an upset stomach. He became affected by violent stomach cramps and aching limbs, and spent his time in the bathroom sweating, shivering and vomiting. He passed an extremely undemanding fitness test but suffered a relapse shortly before the game and Ramsey was forced to rest him and play Peter Bonetti in his place. Ramsey remarked that "of all the players to lose, we had to lose him." Banks watched the game on television at the hotel as England lost a two-goal lead to be eliminated 3–2 after extra time; due to a time delay on the broadcast he switched the television off with England 2–0 in the lead as Bobby Moore returned to the hotel to break the news of the defeat. Conspiracies later surfaced that Banks had been poisoned to take him out of the game, but with no evidence to support them Banks never believed in these conspiracies.
caption: Trading card of Banks with England. Issued by Panini for the 1970 World Cup
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