Gordon Banks

Gordon Banks, OBE (born Sheffield, England, 30th December, 1937) is a former English footballer, considered by many to be the best goalkeeper to have played the game.

A Sudden End & A New Life

On 22nd October 1972, while driving home from a session with the Stoke physiotherapist, Banks lost control of his car which ended up in a ditch. He lost consciousness and was rushed to hospital. When he came round, he was informed that though he had not suffered any life-threatening injury, he had lost the sight of one eye. He considered trying to resume his career as a goalkeeper but even he had to accept that his restricted vision was an obvious barrier to maintaining his goalkeeping livelihood. Shilton became England's number one and, ironically, it was he whom Stoke bought in 1974 as Banks' long-term replacement.

Related Topics:
22nd October - 1972 - Physiotherapist - 1974

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Banks went into scouting, managed non-league side Telford United and did some work on the commercial side of football. He then went to play as a named superstar in the NASL for Fort Lauderdale Strikers alongside his old nemesis Best. He later began a business which distributed tickets for big events to corporate clients, but this fell into a mini-scandal when he received a restricted ban on getting tickets for the FA Cup final after some attributed to his company fell into the wrong hands.

Related Topics:
Telford United - NASL - Fort Lauderdale Strikers

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Banks met his wife Ursula while on national service in Germany and they married after he returned to England. He now lives in quiet retirement but is still regarded, as a Channel 4 poll to find England's greatest XI showed recently, as the best goalkeeper England has ever produced, and many apologists would claim no goalkeeper in the world has been better.

Related Topics:
Wife - Channel 4

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