Gordon Banks
Born: 30 December 1937 in Sheffield (England).
Nationality: English
Career as a player: 1955-1959: Chesterfield (23
appearances). 1959-1966: Leicester City (293 appearances). 1966-1972: Stoke City (194 appearances). 1967: Cleveland Stokers (USA, 12 appearances). 1977: St Patrick’s Athletic (Republic of Ireland; one appearance). 1977-1978: Fort Lauderdale Strikers (USA, 39 appearances).
Honours as a player: 1966: world champion. 1970: OBE. 70 caps for England.
Miscellaneous: In 2001, Banks sold his 1966 World Cup winning medal at Christie’s auction house in London. The medal sold for £124,750, easily exceeding the initial estimate of £90,000. Banks said the decision to sell was difficult as the 4-2 victory over West Germany at Wembley was the greatest day of his career. But the goalkeeper wanted to save his children the burden of deciding what to do with the medal after his death. The proceeds of the medal were divided between them.
Gordon Banks and his most famous save
At his peak, this 70-year-old was one of the most outstanding goalkeepers in football. Gordon Banks won the 1966 FIFA World Cup™ with England, but what really made his name was an incredible save from the legendary Pele.
For that select band of footballers who have won the biggest prize in the game, their career-defining moment is always the FIFA World Cup™ final. For Gordon Banks, England’s 4-2 victory over West Germany in the 1966 final at Wembley is, quite naturally, the former goalkeeper’s outstanding memory of his many years in football. Except that every week without fail, Banks is approached by a member of the public wanting to ask about another event in his career: that unforgettable save he made at the 1970 World Cup to deny Pele.
“They come up and shake my hand and ask ‘is that the hand that made the save?’,” Banks told FIFA magazine. “Of course, 1966 figures much more strongly in my mind but the save from Pele seems to be the thing that everyone else remembers.”
Banks’ playing career in England ended in 1972, when he was 35, after he lost the sight in his right eye following a car accident. Since then, the man who helped make so many English football fans’ dreams come true in 1966 has been working in another area where a few lucky people’s hopes become reality. For Banks is one of three ex-professionals who make up the Pools Panel, a select group who meet
every Saturday to make their predictions in the event of match postponements in England and Scotland. Millions of pounds can be won or lost based on the decisions made by Banks, his fellow 1966 World Cup winner Roger Hun: and Tony Green, the former Newcastle and Scotland midfielder. “It does make you think very hard knowing that judging a result as a draw or an away win could make the difference between someone winning a million pounds or just a few pence,” said Banks, “but you just have to give your honest opinion and that is all anyone can ask.”
GREAT FRIENDS WITH PELE
Banks, Hunt and Green have all been sitting on the Pools Panel for more than 20 years, and it has provided the former goalkeeper with a connection with football after his efforts to make it in coaching proved fruitless. After the car crash in 1972, Banks coached the youth team at Stoke City, the club where he spent the last six years of his playing career. After a short spell as manager of non-league side Telford United, Banks was tempted to move to Fort Lauderdale Strikers for a season in the North American Soccer League.
On his return to England, Banks could not find any openings in football. He worked for a corporate entertainment company for several years before being chosen to sit on the Pools Panel, a job he still does now at the age of 70. It gives him plenty of time to pursue his other interests: golf, gardening, after-dinner speaking and duties at Stoke City – now back in the top flight of English football after a 23-year absence – where he is honorary president. But even 37 years after that moment in Guadalajata, the save from Pele continues to have an impact on his life. After that match against Brazil, he formed a friendship with Pele that has lasted ever since. As recently as July this year, a Banks-managed XI played a Pele-managed XI in a charity match to raise money to fight poverty in Africa. “Our paths had crossed a few times and we became big friends,” said Banks. “We respected each other’s abilities and we have always had a great affection for each other Thar has lasted for many years now.”
£20 A WEEK
Banks was of that generation that used football as an escape from the coal mines of northern England. Born in Sheffield, by the age of 15 he was working as a labourer filling sacks with coal, before he moved to another trade as an apprentice bricklayer. Chesterfield, a club in the third division of English football, provided a way out and his move to the big time came with Leicester City, who bought him for £7,000 in 1959. He spent seven years with Leicester and became England’s regular goalkeeper in 1963 before he was signed by Stoke in 1966. Between 1963 and 1972 he won 73 England caps but even for a seasoned international, professional football was not the ticket to bountiful riches that it is now.
“I was playing when there was the maximum wage of £20 a week,” Banks said. “Even when the maximum wage was abolished we only got a £5 rise. I don’t resent players getting paid big salaries now but 1 do feel that some of the amounts are over the top. I do believe that when players are getting so much money, it can affect their desire for the game. Success meant so much to my generation — a chance to escape
a job down the mines, an opportunity to make a better life for our families, and to try and achieve some security. I am not sure that desire is so strong now.”
A SERIOUS STOMACH BUG
But back to that save from Pele, one of those pure moments of footballing genius. Brazil had been putting England under serious pressure and Jairzinho sent a tremendous high cross from the byline towards the far post. Pele’s timing saw him meet the cross with a thunderous downwards header and he shouted “Goal!” as the ball flew towards the net. Banks had to change direction and dive both backwards and downwards, but he managed to get the base of his thumb to the ball and divert it over the bar.
Pele could hardly believe it – he later described it as the best save he had ever seen. “I seem to remember he looked away in horror,” said Banks, before adding modestly: “I’m sure goalkeepers all over
the world have saves as good but this one just happened to be against Brazil in the World Cup finals and on television, so it gets shown again and again.”
There are many who believe that had Banks played in the 1970 quarter-final against West Germany, then England would have made it through to another World Cup final. Banks, however, was ruled out by a serious stomach bug and Peter Bonetti was called in as a last-minute replacement, England looked to be in control at 2-0 up but Bonetti allowed a Franz Beckenbauer shot to squirm underneath his body, and West Germany ended up 3-2 victors. Afterwards, for Banks there was just the memory of that save to savour.
It is apt that it is Pele himself who has summed up the moment perfectly. Pele said to FIFA magazine: “I scored more than a thousand goals in my life, but the goal I don’t score is the one they all remember!”
THE STADIUM
Name: Millennium Stadium
Address: Millennium Stadium PLC, Gate 4. Westgate Street, Cardiff, CF10 1NS
Opened: 1848 (cricket at Cardiff Arms Park)
Last renovation: 1999
No. of seats 74,500
Covered 100%
Home teams: Welsh national football and rugby teams
Internet: www.millenniumstadium.com
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Millennium – more than a stadium
Since opening in June 1999, Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium has welcomed over 1.3 million visitors per year. With the first retractable roof in the UK, the stadium is a multi-purpose, all-round venue. With a UEFA 5-Sr.ar rating and two Rugby World Cups, two Wales rugby union Grand Slams, three Heineken Cup finals, six FA Cup Finals plus a plethora of major international football matches, concerts and motorsports events on its CV, the Millennium Stadium is established as a world-class, must-play, must-visit venue and has been home to five major sporting bodies over the last nine years.
Erected on the site of the old Cardiff Arms Park, the world-famous home of Welsh rugby, the Millennium Stadium was primarily built for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. As early as 1994, a committee was set up to look at redeveloping the Welsh national stadium and linking the redevelopment to the regeneration of
West Cardiff. In 1995, Wales won the right to host the 1999 Rugby World Cup against severe competition from the southern hemisphere, but a review of the national stadium at Cardiff Arms Park (designed in 1962) showed that it had long since been overtaken, as the rugby union bodies in England and Scotland had developed stadiums with capacities of 75,000 and 67,000 respectively and France was about to build the Stade de France with a capacity of over 80,000.
RUGBY WORLD CUP
Capacity at the old national stadium was just 53,000 (including 11,000 standing on the East Terrace) and new safety regulations meant that the capacity would be further reduced by all-seater arrangements. There were no spectator facilities in the old stadium other than toilets. It was decided that the new stadium should have a roof to accommodate a requirement for multi-use as well as a natural grass pitch for rugby and football. Therefore a retractable roof was incorporated into the design brief. The only other retractable roof in Europe at the time was at the Amsterdam ArenA (with a capacity of 50,000), the home of Ajax.
A number of different development options were considered. One included adding a third tier to the existing stadium; another suggested moving to a completely new site. The Millennium Stadium redevelopment option that was eventually chosen and supported by the Millennium Commission became the fourth redevelopment in the history of the Cardiff Arms Park site.
It was clear from the budget requirement for the new stadium (of over £100m) that Government funding would be needed, but the only potential source of funding at the time was the National Lottery — set up in 1994 — as one of eight major UK projects of the Millennium Commission.
The Commission was prepared to fund a maximum of £50m of the redevelopment so Welsh Rugby Union decided to raise the remainder of the £ll4m budget from commercial sources. After competition from the proposed Cardiff Bay Opera House in March 1996, the Millennium Commission agreed to support the redevelopment of Cardiff Arms Park by turning the stadium 90 degrees, developing over existing sites and demolishing the Empire Pool on the corner of Wood and Park Street to create an open plaza guaranteeing safe access and entrance for spectators.
Critics claimed the project could not be completed on schedule, but the doors to the new Millennium Stadium were thrown open for the first time in June 1999 when Wales welcomed world champions South Africa for a Rugby World Cup warm-up match. Four months later, the stadium successfully hosted the opening ceremony of Rugby World Cup 1999, three group matches for Wales, a quarter-final, the third-place play-off and the Rugby World Cup final between Australia and France. The Millennium Stadium proved to be a triumph for Welsh ingenuity as fans from around the world flocked to marvel at its architecture and revel in the raucous atmosphere created in a superb stadium that now held 74,500 spectators.
A GREAT CHOICE
As well as playing host to matches involving the Welsh national rugby and football teams, the Millennium Stadium soon became a venue of choice for concerts and other sports such as speedway, motocross, rugby league and boxing. Stars from the music world to have appeared at the stadium over the last nine years include Madonna, Tina Turner, Robbie Williams and Bruce Springsteen, whilst mega-bands such as U2, The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Bon Jovi and the Manic Street Preachers have all graced the Millennium stage in front of huge, enthusiastic audiences.
Cardiff also struck gold in 2001 when The Football Association elected to transfer its major club matches to the Millennium Stadium after work started on the new Wembley. Six FA Cup finals were played in Wales, including the epic 2001 match between Liverpool and Arsenal, and the Millennium Stadium also hosted numerous League Cup finals and Football League play-off matches before Wembley eventually reopened for business in 2007.
What makes the Millennium Stadium so special is its superb location right in the heart of Cardiff city centre. Situated on the banks of the River Taff, 200 metres from the main railway station, the stadium is a magnet for visiting fans who love to soak up the big-match atmosphere whilst socialising in the city’s numerous bars, cafes and restaurants situated just a few blocks away. Crowd trouble is virtually non¬existent with everybody seemingly intent on enjoying a memorable day out at one of European sport’s most prestigious and convenient venues.
The Millennium Stadium is a popular venue with the players, too. Following his side’s 2007 League Cup final victory over Arsenal — the last all-English match played in Cardiff before Wembley reopened -Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard commented: “It has been a fantastic venue. I’ve really enjoyed playing here. I have lost once and won twice so I have a good record and have liked it on every occasion. Wembley is the spiritual home of the FA Cup and obviously everyone would like to play there, but while it has not been possible, the Millennium Stadium has been a great choice.”
