G.O.A.T. - Leicester City

Arguably the greatest goalkeeper to ever play the game, Gordon Banks joined Chesterfield in March 1953, and played for the youth team in the 1956 FA Youth Cup Final before making his first team debut in November 1958, and was sold to Leicester City for £7,000 in July 1959. He played in four cup finals for the club, as they were beaten in the 1961 and 1963 FA Cup finals, before winning the League Cup in 1964 and finishing as finalists in 1965, and of course winning the World Cup with England in 1966. In the 1963 semi-final against Liverpool, they were top of the table, chasing a league and cup double, Gordon kept a clean sheet despite his goal being under a near-constant siege, Liverpool had had 34 attempts on goal to Leicester's one, and he later stated that it was his finest performance at club level.
He'd had an uneasy start to his career at Leicester but he put in extra hours during training and came up with practice sessions to improve his skills, particularly coming for crosses – this was largely unique in an era where there were no specialized goalkeeping coaches
He had made his England debut in 1963, the first game played under the new Wembley roof, but Scotland's Jim Baxter ran the match scoring twice, once with a penalty, as England lost 2-1
The next international, just a few weeks later, could hardly have been more difficult - Brazil at Wembley. England did well to hold the World Champions to a 1-1 draw, but Banks got it in the neck from the manager. Banks calls it the most perplexing moment he ever had in football. Pepe, the Brazilain outside left, took a free kick from 30 yards. He curled it over the England wall to Banks's left. As Banks moved to cover it, the ball swerved again, this time changing direction to his right, leaving the hapless keeper stranded.
Banks believes that no goalkeeper in the world could have saved it. Ramsey had other ideas and gave him a roasting! However the legend of the impregnable Banks was about to be born as England lost only nine of their 73 matches with Banks in goal, including their 1966 World Cup winning campaign where they reached the semi-finals without conceding a goal.

The 1970 World Cup match against Brazil witnessed the 'Save of the Century' as he saved from Pele.The Brazilian ace shouted "Goal!" as the ball left his head, so certain was he of scoring. Later, he was to tell everyone that it was the greatest save he had ever seen.
For 10 years, Gordon Banks wasn't just England's goalkeeper, he was indisputably the best in the world. Perhaps the finest there has ever been. The IFFHS named Banks the second best goalkeeper of the 20th century – after Lev Yashin (1st).He was also named FWA Footballer of the Year in 1972, and was FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year on six occasions.

Some years earlier Banks had been watching a schoolboy coaching session after training at Filbert Street. One 13-year-old boy caught his eye. "This lad's a good 'un," he had remarked to the club's trainer George Dewis. "Aye," replied Dewis. "He'll be having you out of the team, too."
In 1967, within 10 months of World Cup victory, that prophetic statement came true. The boy's name was Peter Shilton and with him demanding first team football Leicester now considered him good enough to let Banks go after making nearly 300 appearances for 'the Foxes'.

He wrote: "In my early days, a goal against us was shrugged off. Nobody liked conceding a goal, but once the ball had gone into the net it was accepted as 'one of those things' and everybody in the team would concentrate on trying to get the goal back.
But once the maximum wage had been lifted and win bonuses became all-important, it was suddenly considered a crime to concede a goal."
Perhaps somewhere in those words of Gordon Banks, goalkeeper supreme, is the difference between football as a sport and football as a hard-nosed business.