Banks, Gordon Born: 20 December 1937, Position: Goalkeeper (Chesterfield, Leicester City, Stoke City, Fort Lauderdale Strikers and England)
Major Honours: World Cup 1966 Relevant Career Statistics: 73 appearances for England, clean sheet kept in 35 of those appearances. 510 League games including 194 for Stoke City.
Admitted to the Hall of Fame: 1st March 2002 with 39% of the votes. Typical comment listed by voter during poll: "World's greatest ever save. Mr no-nonsense."
Roy of the Rovers References:
Internet Links: There are no specific web sites dedicated to Gordon Banks, but the following links offer great sources of information. The profile of Gordon Banks on the Internet's best and free encyclopaedia. This page also give links to other references to this hall of famer. World Cup Legend - A brilliant profile of Gordon by the World Cup Archive.com team.  Biography of Gordon Banks -  A factual summary of the career of Gordon by Football Galaxy.co.uk. The World's Greatest Goalkeeper  - An excellent rundown on Gordon from the brilliant Stoke City website 'Tales from the Boothen End'. After Dinner Speaker  - Gordon Banks OBE 'After Dinner Speaker!'. International Hall of Fame - Gordon's brilliant career rightly celebrated in the International Hall of Fame.
Videos:  1966 World Cup Final - Gordon stars in English football's finest two hours as originally seen on BBC TV with commentary by Kenneth Wolstenholme.
The Official FIFA World Cup 1966 Video - This official FIFA film highlights the World Cup footballing event of 1966 in which England triumphed over West Germany in the final. Gordon and friends star. history are featured

Who should be remembered as the greatest goalkeeper in the world, ever? The Russian, Lev Yashin? Or Gordon Banks? The fact that Gordon's most famous save was against fellow Hall of Famer Pele, guarantees its place in soccer folklore.

He joined Chesterfield Town, the Third Division North side as a part-time pro in 1955 for £2 a match. His career was interrupted by two years National Service, spent in Germany with the Royal Signals. It was here that he met his wife, Ursula. In 1958, on demob, Gordon turned full-time pro with Chesterfield, on £17-a-week, and played 23 League games before joining Leicester City in 1959 in a £7,000 transfer.

Leicester reached the FA Cup Final in his second season, 1961. But they were up against the great Spurs side who did the double that year. There was more disappointment in 1963 when Leicester got to Wembley again, and were beaten this time by Manchester United. 

Gordon's first major club honours were not far away and Leicester won the League Cup in 1964 beating his future club Stoke City in the League Cup final. By now, Gordon had broken through into the England team. He made 37 appearances for England while with Leicester and a further 36 at Stoke. 

It was a tough International beginning. His debut was against Scotland at Wembley in April 1963 - Alf Ramsey's second game as England manager. The first under Ramsey had been a 5-2 mauling by France in Paris and Sheffield Wednesday's Ron Springett was the man who made way for Banks.

The pinnacle, of course, was England's World Cup victory in 1966. They had reached the semi-finals without Gordon conceding a goal. Gordon's displays against Portugal in the semi-final and West Germany in the final were brilliant.

Gordon joined Stoke in the summer of 1967, from Leicester City, aged 29 years, for £52,000 after 293 League outings for Leicester. Liverpool and West Ham were desperate to sign but it was Stoke who came up with the goods. His departure came about because Leicester had unearthed another goalkeeper of similar potential - one Peter Shilton.

Always one for the big stage Gordon was the star performer in the 1970 World Cup. England had won the opening match in Mexico with a 1-0 defeat of Romania before heading for a showdown with Brazil. That game has rightly been hailed as a classic. It is remembered for the marvellous personal contest between Moore and Pele - and for what has become known as the Save of the Century.

Gordon played the game of his life - and needed to. His momentous save will be remembered forever and Pele later described it as the greatest he had ever seen.

England won their final group game against Czechoslovakia 1-0 to set up a quarter-final clash with old foes West Germany. Gordon however, became ill on the night before the game, convulsed with nausea in the searing heat and suffering from vomiting fits.

He felt ill again on the coach journey to Leon where the game was taking place and Chelsea's Peter Bonetti played instead of him. England took a two goal lead and manager Sir Alf Ramsey then substituted Bobby Charlton, seeking to rest him for the semi-finals which looked comfortably within their grasp. Then disaster struck. England lost their grip, conceding two goals. The game went into extra-time when the Germans completed an astonishing comeback by getting the winner.

After the World Cup Gordon continued with Stoke and in April 1972, he made a remarkable penalty save from his World Cup colleague Geoff Hurst in a League Cup semi-final at Upton Park. That was an exhausting series of matches - four in all - but Stoke finally emerged victorious with a 3-2 victory at Old Trafford and then went on to beat Chelsea in the final. 

However later that year, in October 1972, Gordon's professional life was in ruins - shattered by a road accident in which he lost the sight in his right eye. He had been to Stoke's Victoria Ground on a Sunday for treatment after the 2-1 defeat at Liverpool the day before when his Ford Granada was in collision with a van. He fought hard to regain fitness but he realised he could not maintain the high standards he had set himself in League football. 

For a time he coached the Stoke youth team, then signed for Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the North American Soccer League. Despite his handicap, Banks was voted the League's most valuable goalkeeper in his first season.  He also had spells coaching at Vale Park before becoming general manager of Telford United. He later ran his own sports promotion agency and is now a member of the Football Pools Panel as well as a popular after-dinner speaker.

Awarded the OBE in 1970, Gordon was also the Tiger Sportsman of the Year in 1972 the same year he also gained a League Cup winners' tankard and was named both Footballer of the Year and Sportsman of the Year. England lost only nine of their 73 matches with Gordon in goal. What's more he let in just 57 goals, an average of just 0.78 goals per game, keeping 35 clean sheets!

Never one to over elaborate, Gordon made his art seem simple. These all make perfect 'Roy of the Rovers' credentials and we welcome probably the greatest keeper the game has seen to the Roy of the Rovers Hall of Fame.