World Cup winning goalkeeper with England in 1966

Born: December 30, 1937;

Died: February 12, 2019

GORDON Banks, who has died aged 81, was a former England, Leicester and Stoke footballer who, as a linchpin of England's 1966 World Cup team, is widely regarded as one of the best keepers of all time. One particular moment in his career, when he stopped Pele in the 1970 World Cup, is still one of the most famous saves in history. Pele's close-range header was aiming for the bottom corner of the net when Banks threw himself to his right and somehow managed to scoop the ball off the goal-line and up over the crossbar to safety.

Banks made 510 league appearances in all for Chesterfield, Leicester and Stoke and won 73 senior international caps including in the 1966 World Cup triumph against West Germany. He lost the sight in his right eye after being injured in a road accident in 1972 and retired at the age of 34 as a result.

Along with a World Cup-winner's medal, Banks' 73-cap CV featured six FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year awards. It also showed notable success at club level, with two League Cup wins, with Leicester in 1964 and Stoke in 1972.

Born in Sheffield in 1937, Banks' time playing for Sheffield schoolboys was inauspicious - he was dropped aged 14 after two games without explanation.

He left school in 1952 and went on to work as a coal bagger and then an apprentice bricklayer.

His return to football happened almost by accident, turning up to watch local side Millspaugh and being summoned to play in goal after their regular goalkeeper failed to turn up - and doing so in his working trousers. His performances for Millspaugh led to him being recruited by Yorkshire League outfit Rawmarsh. His time with them was brief and chastening, playing in 12-2 and 3-1 defeats before being told not to turn up again.

Read more: England goalkeeper Gordon Banks dies

However, after returning to Millspaugh, he soon attracted interest once again, being offered a trial with Chesterfield's youth team towards the end of the 1952-53 season, which was successful.

It was certainly not all plain sailing from there. Banks conceded 122 goals over 1954-55 with Chesterfield's reserves, but he was part of the Spireites side that reached the 1956 FA Youth Cup final.

And after making his first-team debut for the Third Division club in November 1958, a move to the top flight came quickly, with Leicester signing him at the end of that season.

In the six years that followed, Banks helped the Foxes reach four cup finals, suffering FA Cup defeats in 1961 to Tottenham and 1963 to Manchester United, celebrating his first piece of silverware in 1964 with victory over Stoke in the League Cup, and then losing to Chelsea in that competition in 1965.

Banks' England career also began during that period, his senior debut coming in 1963 against Scotland at Wembley.

That game finished in a disappointing 2-1 reverse, but three years later he tasted the ultimate glory at the same venue, lifting the World Cup after the defeat of West Germany at the end of a tournament in which he had kept clean sheets against Uruguay, Mexico, France and Argentina.

Despite him having reached that pinnacle of footballing achievement, Leicester, who had a teenage Peter Shilton on their books, opted to sell Banks to Stoke as the following season came to a close.

He was 29 at that point and would subsequently prove he still had plenty to offer.

The famous save in Guadalajara in 1970 was the most obvious example, with Banks' worth underlined as England lost their quarter-final to West Germany 3-2, with their number one absent due to illness. Conspiracy theories abounded that Banks had been poisoned to take him out of the match, but there was no evidence to support them and the man himself gave them no credence.

There was also a memorable stop for the Potters en route to them winning the 1972 League Cup, Banks keeping out a penalty from fellow 1966 hero Geoff Hurst in the semi-finals against West Ham before Chelsea were overcome in the final.

Banks, by then an OBE, ended that season as The Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year, but his playing days were almost done. A car crash in October 1972 led to him losing the sight in his right eye and he retired in the summer of 1973.

He still went on to have a short, successful spell in goal for American side Fort Lauderdale Strikers, despite his visual impairment. He coached at Stoke and Port Vale and was boss of non-league Telford, with his sacking in 1980 after just one full season in charge convincing him he did not want to carry on in management.

Banks was subsequently involved in the running of a Leicester-based corporate hospitality company, and became a member of the three-man football pools panel.

In 2002, Stoke named him as club president, and a statue of a smiling Banks holding the Jules Rimet trophy aloft was unveiled at their ground in 2008, an occasion attended by his old friend and rival Pele.

Banks revealed in 2015 he was fighting kidney cancer for a second time, having lost a kidney to the disease 10 years earlier.

He is survived by his wife Ursula, whom he met during his national service in Germany in 1955, and their three children, Robert, Wendy and Julia.