Gordon Banks XI vs Pelé XI

Gordon Banks XI vs Pelé XI
poster outside the Potteries Shopping Centre, Hanley

photo: Steve Birks June 2008

On Saturday 12th July 2008 footballing legend Pelé honoured a fellow sporting great when he unveiled a statue of former Stoke City and England star Gordon Banks.

The England 1966 World Cup-winning keeper made what has been dubbed the greatest save ever from a Pelé header in the 1970 tournament in Mexico.

Banks, who played for Stoke between 1967 and 1972, was at the ceremony at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa also helped unveil the bronze statue. Archbishop Tutu, the one-time anti-apartheid campaigner, was invited to mark the World Cup Finals being awarded to South Africa in 2010.

The bronze statue of Banks was unveiled at the Britannia Stadium

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Gordon Banks and Pele posed with the statue

photos: BBC web site

After the unveiling several former footballers took part in a charity football match between a Banks XI and a Pelé XI - Luther Blissett, Ian Rush, John Barnes, Jan Molby, Peter Bonetti, Matt Le Tissier and Mike Pejic.

Cricketer Dominic Cork, actor James Nesbitt, MP James Purnell, film director Paul Greengrass and musicians from Kasabian and The Twang also played in the game.

Banks played for Stoke City from 1967 to 1972

The statue - made by local artist Andrew Edwards - was the brainchild of Irish author Don Mullen who has written a book about goal keeper Gordon Banks called The Hero Who Could Fly.

The statue - a life-size depiction of Banks holding aloft the Jules Rimet World Cup at Wembley in 1966 - is the first of three proposed statues scheduled to be followed by recreations of his famous save against Pele in 1970 and a penalty save for Stoke at West Ham in 1972.

The completed statue was unveiled at the Britannia on Saturday, July 12 2008 and was followed by a celebrity match to raise funds for charity.