Gordon Banks was England’s goalkeeper when the nation reached the summit, a calm and superbly positioned custodian who kept goal as England won the World Cup in 1966. Reliable and undemonstrative, he brought a new professionalism to goalkeeping.
He is immortalised for a single moment: the save from Pelé at the 1970 World Cup, when he flung himself to turn a downward header over the bar, an act of reflex and athleticism regarded as the finest save ever made. A car accident later cost him the sight in one eye and cut short his career, but his standing as one of the greatest goalkeepers endures.