The save of the century: How Gordon Banks stunned the world

Gordon Banks knew long ago that when this day came, people would immediately talk about that save. 

After all, he said, it seemed to have usurped winning the World Cup in the minds of almost everyone he spoke to.

It was a group match in 1970 between World Cup holders England and favourites – and eventual winners – Brazil at the Jalisco stadium in Guadalajara, where 66,843 spectators had packed in to watch the two sides duel in searing sunshine.

Gordon Banks always knew he’d be remembered for one of this finest ever saves in football

It came in the 1970 World Cup from Pele, when England met Brazil in a group encounter 

Pele’s header cannoned into the ground and back up at goal as Banks was scrambling

Yet somehow he reached it, turning the ball up away from the line and over the crossbar

After only 10 minutes, Banks produced a save from Pele that would engrave his name into the annals of footballing history. 

Carlos Alberto threaded the ball forward into the onrushing Jairzinho, who hopped and skipped around Terry Cooper like a triple jumper. The ball bobbled as Jairzinho hit the byline but it only served to help him arc the ball back into the penalty area.

And there, like he always knew to be, was Pele. He soared, transcendental, over the England defence and powered the ball into the ground with a crushing header. 

But Banks, scrambling back across his line, somehow intervened. 

He reached behind his body to claw the ball up away from the line and over his crossbar in one motion. It was beyond instinctive, one of the purest combinations of point-blank speed and agility.

‘As I got to my feet I tried to look as nonchalant as possible, as if to say that I make that sort of save all the time,’ Banks said to The Observer in 2003. 

Banks said: ‘I tried to look as nonchalant as possible, as if to say I make that save all the time’

The moment occurred in the 10th minute of the group match on June 7, 1970

Banks said he knew people would remember him for it, despite feeling he made better stops 

Brazil went on to win the game 1-0 with a second half goal from Jairzinho. In a FIFA interview, the Brazilian said the save was the best in World Cup history and that ‘everyone in Brazil would agree.’

Yet Banks always said he made better stops.

‘That (his best save) was a penalty from Geoff Hurst against Stoke in the League Cup semi-final in 1972,’ Banks said in an interview with Sportsmail in 2016.

Banks was England’s World Cup winning goalkeeper in 66. That same year he was named FIFA’s Goalkeeper of the Year, an honour he went on to claim for six years straight.

And yet he always knew that June 7, 1970 was the day everyone would talk about when his name was mentioned.

‘It’s something that people will always remember me for,’ Banks told FourFourTwo in 2012. 

‘They won’t remember me for winning the World Cup, it’ll be for that save. That’s how a big a thing it is. People just want to talk about that save.’

And now they will, perhaps more than ever before. Rightly so.