FORMER English goalkeeper Gordon Banks was presented with the Forte Hotels sponsored Legend in Sport Award in Dublin yesterday for his feats in a career that brought 73 international caps and a World Cup winner's medal.
While Banks was a member of the England side that triumphed at Wembley in 1966 he admits to being best remembered for his save in the match with Brazil at the following World Cup when he saved a Pele header from a seemingly impossible angle.
"I've always said that that was the case but I don't mind at all. If certain people choose to remember me for anything at all then I am very pleased about it. It's a great honour that anyone knows who I am after all these years."
In fact Banks is undergoing something of a revival at the moment in the build up to the first major championships to be staged in England since the 1966 World Cup and, he says, because this is the 30th anniversary of the team's win "I've kind of been taken out and dusted off again".
He still undertakes some goalkeeping coaching work in the United States and joins the likes of Pat Jennings, George Best and Stanley Matthews as a winner of this award.
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