World cup Legends

WORLD CUP LEGENDS
GORDON BANKS
Arguably England’s greatest ever goalkeeper, Gordon Banks recalls
that fateful day in 1966 in this exclusive interview
GORDON BANKS
Capped 73 times for England,
Gordon Banks is regarded as one
of the greatest goalkeepers of
all time. He starred in every one of his
country’s matches en route to the World
Cup inal victory in 1966 and kept a clean
sheet in every game until the semis. He
was also an FA Cup inalist in 1961 and
1963 for Leicester City and a winner of
the League Cup in 1964 with the Foxes
and Stoke City in 1972.
The 1966 World Cup started well from your
perspective, but did you sense it could be
an uphill battle from then on?
When we drew 0-0, I thought, “Wow, we have
our hands full here now. We have really got to
do something”. But I think there was tension
in that irst match and we didn’t play like I
knew we could play. It was only when we
won the next match and then got through the
group stage that we realised we stood a bit of
a chance. We were undefeated and we weren’t
conceding goals and we felt teams would
be saying, “Oh crikey, they are hard to score
against.” That was good.
Having four cup inals under your belt, you
were no stranger to Wembley, were you?
We also played England friendlies at Wembley
and it did give me a little bit of conidence to go
out and do my job. There’s not much diference
between playing in a [domestic] cup inal and a
World Cup inal – you just need to go out there,
do the best you can and hope everything goes
your way.
Is it true that Alf Ramsey managed the
England national team as if they were a
club side?
He made it that way, deinitely. He also made
sure that if he told you something you had to
do it or you were out. Oh yes, he was pretty
strong in that sense. But the information that
he got over to the players was fantastic. He
would give you the strength and the weakness
of the opposition. He might come over to me
and say ‘go and watch this centre forward, he’s
got a great left foot and if it’s on that side he can
really wallop it so be prepared because he will
deinitely do it’. He was a terriic manager, and
something really special.
“THERE WAS A BIG FURORE ABOUT GEOFF’S
GOAL THAT HIT THE BAR [BUT] ROGER HUNT
WAS RIGHT. IT WAS A GOAL”
Were you nervous during the run-up to
the inal?
Well, we tried to do what we would normally
do for a friendly match but when four or ive
us decided to walk from Hendon Hall hotel
into the village, people recognised us and they
were coming over and wishing us the best of
luck, which showed how important this game
was. There was also a large crowd outside the
hotel where the bus was waiting and when
we got on the bus, everyone was clapping and
cheering – that brought a lot of tension. I mean,
I know it was the same route that we always
took when we played international games at
Wembley but all of that meant it was very quiet
on the bus.
Was there a point when you thought, this is
it: there is a real chance that you could be
making history?
When the noise went in the dressing room to
tell us that it was time to go into the tunnel,
then wow, that was when it really hit home.
We saw the Germans alongside us and shook
their hands but walking down that tunnel was
really nerve-wracking. The tension was very
high. But after we sang the national anthem,
tossed the coin and I ran to the goal to have
one or two practice shots lined up against me,
the referee blew his whistle and that’s when
the tension disappeared. We just concentrated
on doing our jobs. We wanted to give it 90
minutes as best we could.
Germany put one past you very early
in the game. What was your feeling at
that point?
Well, to be honest with you – and I’m not
being critical because he’s a great player and
he did well for the team – but I’m pretty sure if
Big Jack [Charlton] had not been standing in
front of me, I would have saved the shot. But
I couldn’t see. He was just inside the six yard
box. I don’t know what he was doing and I’m
not the kind of guy to give people rollickings
or things like that but anyway, yes. It never put
our heads down, though. We just realised we
had to carry on and get a goal back.
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