The 1966 World Cup – Through An LCFC Lens

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The 1966 World Cup – Through An LCFC Lens

Club Historian John Hutchinson recounts how sixty years ago, Leicester City’s goalkeeper Gordon Banks played for the victorious England team in the 1966 World Cup.

2026-06-21T09:00+01:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

21 Jun, 2026

The 1966 World Cup – Through An LCFC Lens

Club Historian John Hutchinson recounts how sixty years ago, Leicester City’s goalkeeper Gordon Banks played for the victorious England team in the 1966 World Cup.

John Hutchinson

2026-06-21T09:00+01:00

The 1966 World Cup – Through An LCFC Lens

Club Historian John Hutchinson recounts how sixty years ago, Leicester City’s goalkeeper Gordon Banks played for the victorious England team in the 1966 World Cup.

John Hutchinson

2026-06-21T09:00+01:00

The 1966 World Cup – Through An LCFC Lens

Club Historian John Hutchinson recounts how sixty years ago, Leicester City’s goalkeeper Gordon Banks played for the victorious England team in the 1966 World Cup.

John Hutchinson

2026-06-21T09:00+01:00

The 1966 World Cup – Through An LCFC Lens

Club Historian John Hutchinson recounts how sixty years ago, Leicester City’s goalkeeper Gordon Banks played for the victorious England team in the 1966 World Cup.

John Hutchinson

2026-06-21T09:00+01:00

Even before the championship, Gordon was already a Leicester City legend. He arrived at Filbert Street from Chesterfield in May 1959 for a fee of £7,000. During his seven years with us, he played in 356 games. These included 293 league outings (all in the top division) and 63 cup games, which included two FA Cup Finals, two League Cup Finals, and a European Cup Winners’ Cup campaign in 1961.

He won his first three England caps in the month before our FA Cup Final against Manchester United at a time when we were real contenders for the league and cup double. By the time that England’s World Cup campaign kicked off with the game against Uruguay at Wembley on 11 July, Gordon was well established as England’s first choice goalkeeper, having already won 27 caps since his debut.

However, his World Cup campaign could not have had a worse start. Breaking his wrist in a pre- season friendly against Northampton Town, Gordon missed Leicester’s first nine games of the season, as well as two international matches for England, against Wales and Austria. After that, Gordon had a successful season in a Leicester side which, boosted by the signings of Derek Dougan and Jackie Sinclair, finished seventh in the old First Division.

The only game Gordon missed, after his return from injury, was the fixture against Everton on 4 May, because he was playing for England against Yugoslavia at Wembley. His place in the Foxes side was taken by a young 16-year-old called Peter Shilton, making his First Team debut.

In the three weeks and five games leading up to England’s World Cup Final, Banks was a Three Lions ever-present. The first game against Uruguay did not auger well. The dull 0-0 draw was the first time since 1938 that England had failed to score at Wembley, which had 20,000 empty seats.

Uninspiring 2-0 wins over the next five days against Mexico and France saw England qualify for a quarter-final tie against Argentina on 23 July. This game was infamous for its ugliness.

England’s style, personified by Nobby Stiles (who the FA wanted dropped from the team because of his aggression) came up against a technically superior and ruthless Argentina. A period of uncontrolled mayhem followed the sending-off of the Argentinian captain Antonio Rattin in the 36th minute. Rattin refused to leave the pitch, staged a sit-down protest on the red carpet leading to the Royal Box and had to be escorted away by the police. Down to 10 men, Argentina eventually succumbed to Geoff Hurst’s 75th minute goal.

On 26July, in the semi-final against a Eusebio-inspired Portugal, Banks had a pre-match panic in the dressing room when he realised he had no chewing gum.

This was vital to his preparation because he liked to chew on several pieces of gum and then smear it into the palms of his hands to give him a better grip when handling the ball. Harold Shepherdson, the England trainer, was quickly dispatched to a nearby newsagents and the gum was delivered to Gordon as he was walking onto the Wembley pitch. The 2-1 victory over Portugal meant that England were in the showpiece.

The story of England’s extra-time 4-2 defeat of West Germany is well known. He was unsighted for West Germany’s opening goal scored by Helmut Haller in the 12th minute. England went ahead through goals from Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters and then conceded a last-minute goal scored by Wolfgang Weber. Banks was convinced that, in the melee preceding the goal, defender Karl-Heinz Schnellinger had handled the ball.

Exhausted but spurred on by manager Alf Ramsey’s famous words – “You’ve won the World Cup once, now go and win it again” – Hurst’s controversial strike, when the ball hit the crossbar and then the goal line, was allowed by the linesman, despite vehement opposition protests.

The coup de grace came in the closing seconds when, with the crowd on the pitch – “They think it’s all over…” – Hurst completed his hat-trick by smashing in a fierce shot from the edge of the area after a free run from the halfway line, prompting the immortal words, “it is now!”

Gordon received the sum, after tax, of £600 for winning the World Cup in 1966. However, his reputation couldn’t have been higher. Not only was he the only English goalkeeper to ever win a World Cup winners’ medal, not only was he included in FIFA’s best XI from the 1966 World Cup tournament, he was also, at the pinnacle of his career, Leicester City’s goalkeeper.

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