Gordon Banks - one of the great players

Gordon Banks is a goalkeeper whose name everyone knowsBritish football fans. This is a legendary player, which is remembered by absolutely everything. A man whose career was not formed from the very first days of his performances in football. However, in the end everything turned out to be the best, and today everyone remembers saving Gordon Banks after Pele's blow - as well as a very, very many save-in he made during 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 in1937, 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 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 ascended to a fairly strong club of the first division. It was there that the career of young talent began to develop.

Successes in Leicester

The new club Gordon Banks has spent almost allhis young years - he defended the colors of "Leicester" for eight years. During this time, he played 356 matches and more than once recognized 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 got his firstchallenge to the England team 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 1966Gordon Banks, the best goalkeeper of the 20th century, according to many British publications, along with the England team won the world championship. 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 football players in 1966 at the goalkeeper position, and also was first recognized as the best goalkeeper in the world. And this was the beginning of his dominance - after that he was recognized as the first goalkeeper of the world six times in a row, and in 1972 he was generally recognized as the best footballer in the world (and not just the goalkeeper).

However, it is worth going back a little and turningattention to the season 1966/67, which took place after the triumphal world championship. He was the last for Banks in Leicester - the club took a step forward and moved to Stoke City.

Flourishing in Stoke City

When Gordon Banks, whose saves are stillthey were simply breathtaking, he moved to Stoke City, he was only thirty years old - the age at which goalkeepers begin to blossom. As mentioned earlier, every year of his stay at this club, Banks was honored to be the best goalkeeper in the world. During the five years spent in the “Stoke”, Banks played 250 matches, although it is worth noting that eleven of them fell on the last season, in which he almost never entered the field due to injury. In his penultimate season in 1972, Banks, along with his club, took the only trophy - the League Cup. In addition, while the goalkeeper played for Stoke, he, along with the England team, won bronze medals at the 1968 European Championship.

But now it's time to return to the sad1972, 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 this step? Photos of this British hero have been in every sports magazine for the past seven years, and he was ready to play for at least five years. What happened?

Completion of career

The fact is that this player’s career is not onlyIt began, but it did not end in the happiest way. Much had to be transferred to such a player like Gordon Banks. His biography is sad for the reason that in the fall of 1972 the goalkeeper injured of his hand was returning home by car from the clinic. According to the doctors, the hand should have been all right, she 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 wasthe hardest operation was carried out - more than two hundred stitches were put on his face, and more than a hundred were on the eye. After some period of recovery, the diagnosis was disappointing - the doctors told the legend of British football that he would never see as he had before. That is why goalkeeper Gordon Banks made such a difficult decision. Football for him was everything - and overnight he lost absolutely everything.

Resuming career

In 1977, five years after the tragicAccident and retirement, Gordon Banks was invited to the United States, to the North American Football League, where he became the goalkeeper and superstar of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers club. He coped perfectly well with his task - 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 figure in league history at that time.

Rent

During his career, Banks found himself three timesrent. For the first time this happened in 1967, when he went to the United States of America for six months, to the club “Cleveland Stokers”, where he played twelve matches. The next lease occurred 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, by the way, defended to zero. Returning to America, he finished the season to the end and finally announced the final end of his football career.

Coaching activities

Having finished his football career, Gordon Banks, likeMany of the players tried to become a coach, returning to his native England. He was appointed head coach of the Port Vale club, but rather quickly he was relegated to the second team coach. In 1979, he took over the management of the Telford United team, but a year later he had to go to the hospital and then go through a heavy operation, which distracted him from football.

During this time, his substitute lowered the club soas low as it could have been, and as a result, Banks was simply fired, offering in return the position of selling tickets 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 to work in the football field. After two years, he briefly became a goalkeeper coach at Stoke City, but it was more of a hobby than a professional activity, so quite quickly Banks left his position.

What he is doing now?

To date, the legend of British football78 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 cannot be considered a full-fledged football activity, since no decisions are required of him - he simply serves as a legend of the club.

Health status

Today, no one can say for surewill Gordon Banks be able to remain the living legend of Stoke City and of all British football for a long time? The fact is that last December, it was announced that kidney cancer was found on the former goalkeeper, and now he is going through treatment procedures. So far, the forecasts are positive, but no one can say with accuracy how the body of a 78-year-old man will cope with the disease. Therefore, it remains only to hope that Gordon Banks will cope with the disease and live as long as possible for his family and his friends, and for the entire British nation, which literally prays for what this man did for British football.