Gordon Banks - one of the great players

Gordon Banks is a goalkeeper whose name is known to all British football fans. This is a legendary player, which is remembered by absolutely everything. A man whose career has developed far from the very first days of his performances in football. However, in the end everything turned out to be the best, and to this day absolutely everyone remembers saving Gordon Banks after Pele's blow - as well as a very, very many save in the course of his rather long career. So, how did the football life of this great and legendary goalkeeper evolve?

Carier start

Given the fact that Gordon Banks was born in 1937, not much information is available on 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 club "Chesterfield", speaking then in the Third League. However, this contract did not mean that Gordon will have the opportunity to play in the base - he was always exclusively on the bench. Then the world of football was completely different, so Banks calmly sat in the reserve and waited for his opportunity, which introduced himself to him only in 1958. Gordon Banks, who was 21 at that time, spent 26 matches at the gate of "Chesterfield" and, naturally, attracted his wonderful game to the attention of a much more serious club - "Leicester." It was an incredible leap for the goalkeeper, since from the third division he immediately climbed into a fairly strong club of the first division. It was there that the career of young talent began to develop.

Successes in 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 more than once recognized as the best goalkeeper. From the very first to the last day, he remained the main goalkeeper, and in many ways thanks to him in 1964, "Lester" was able to win an important trophy - the League Cup. And this despite the fact that this club almost never won trophies. Moreover, in 1961 and 1963, "Leicester" managed to reach the FA Cup final, and in 1965 the "Foxes" were almost able to take the League Cup for the second consecutive year, but in the finals they still lost.

While in Leicester, Banks received his first challenge to England in 1963. With it, he won eight times the home championship of Great Britain, 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 the version of 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 national team of the best footballers of 1966 as a goalkeeper, and was also recognized as the best goalkeeper in the world for the first time. And this was the beginning of his domination - after that he was recognized six times as the world's first goalkeeper, and in 1972 he was generally recognized as the best football player in the world (and not just the goalkeeper).

However, it is worth returning a little back and pay attention to the 1966/67 season, which took place after the triumphant World Cup. He was the last for Banks at Leicester - the club took a step forward and moved to Stoke City.

Blossoming in 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 start to blossom. As already mentioned earlier, every year of his stay at this club, Banks was awarded the title of the best goalkeeper in the world. For five years, spent in the "Stock", Banks played 250 matches, although it is worth noting that eleven of them fell in the last season, in which he practically did not leave the field due to 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 bronze medals at the 1968 European Championships.

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 hero of Britain 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?

Completion of career

The fact is that the career of this player not only started, but did not end in the most happy way. A lot had to be transferred to a player like Gordon Banks. His biography is sad for the reason that in the fall of 1972 the injured goalkeeper was returning home by car from the clinic. With the hand, according to the doctors' forecasts, everything should be all right, it should soon heal, but something unexpected happened - Banks failed to manage, and the car pulled off the road.

The goalkeeper was taken to the clinic where he underwent a very difficult operation - over two hundred stitches were applied to his face, more than a hundred of them had to be seen by eye. After a period of recovery, the diagnosis turned out to be disappointing - doctors told the legend of British football that he would never see it the way it used to. That's why the goalkeeper Gordon Banks took such a difficult decision. Football for him was everything - and he suddenly lost absolutely everything.

Resuming career

In 1977, five years after the tragic accident and the end of his career, Gordon Banks was invited to the United States, to the North American Football League, where he became the superstar goalkeeper of the Fort Lauderdale Strykers club. For his task, he coped well - two seasons was the club's main goalkeeper, and one of them became the best goalkeeper, conceding 29 goals in 26 games, which was the highest record in the history of the league at the time.

Leases

During his career, Banks was three times in the lease. It first happened in 1967, when he went to the United States for six months to the Cleveland Stockers club, where he played twelve matches. The next lease 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. Patrick's Athletic", but played only one match, which, among other things, defended to zero. Returning to America, he finished the season to the end and finally announced the final completion of the football career.

Coaching activities

After finishing 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 club "Port Vale", but quickly fell to the coach of the second team. In 1979, he took over the management of the team, "Telford United", but a year later he had to go to the hospital, and then go through a heavy operation that distracted him from football.

During this time, he was replaced by the club as low as it could be done, and Banks was simply fired as a result, offering in exchange the position of a ticket seller for half the salary and not paying what he was supposed to do for the coach's work. For the legend, it was a very strong blow, and he refused to continue working in the football field. Two years later, he became a goalkeeper coach for Stoke City for a short while, but this was more of a hobby than professional activity, so Banks quickly quit his job.

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 club "Stoke City". This can not be considered a full-fledged football activity, since it does not require any decisions - it simply serves as a club legend.

Health status

To date, no one can say for sure whether Gordon Banks will be able to remain a living legend of Stoke City and all of British football for a long time. The fact is that in December of last year it was announced that the former goalkeeper had detected 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 for his family and friends, and for the entire British nation, which literally prays for what this man did for British football.