Gordon Banks
Goalkeeper Banks won 73 England caps and made 628 club appearances in a 15-year career, winning the League Cup with both Leicester and Stoke. Banks is also remembered for his stunning save from Pele’s header in England’s 1970 World Cup clash with Brazil. After helping Stoke to the 1972 League Cup, Banks lost the sight in one eye in a car crash in October later that same year, which ultimately ended his professional career. He had a brief managerial stint with Telford. In 2016, Banks revealed he was battling kidney cancer for the second time. Banks, who had been Stoke president since 2000, died aged 81 in February 2019.
George Cohen
Fulham defender Cohen was forced to retire through injury aged 29, having amassed 459 appearances for the Craven Cottage club. Cohen struggled with bowel cancer for 14 years in the 1980s. He later opted to sell his World Cup winner’s medal, although Fulham purchased the item to display at Craven Cottage. Nephew Ben Cohen helped England win the Rugby World Cup in 2003. Awarded the MBE in 2000.
Jack Charlton
The elder of the Charlton brothers, Jack made 629 appearances for Leeds and collected 35 England caps, before turning attention to a successful managerial career. After stints with Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle, Charlton stepped up to lead the Republic of Ireland and guided them to the quarter-finals of the World Cup 1990 in Italy. Charlton received an OBE in 1974 and was awarded honorary Irish citizenship in 1996, being made a freeman of the city of Dublin in 1994. He died at the age of 85 in July 2020, having been diagnosed with lymphoma and also suffering from dementia.
Bobby Moore
Widely accepted as England’s greatest centre-half and one of the best of all time, World Cup-winning captain Moore died from bowel and liver cancer in February 1993, aged 51. Moore, who won 108 international caps, helped West Ham lift the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup the following season. The defender also had spells at Fulham and in the North American Soccer League before retiring in 1978, with short managerial stints at Oxford City and Southend following. His widow Stephanie founded the Bobby Moore Fund in 1993 to raise money for research into bowel cancer and raise public awareness of the disease.
Ray Wilson
England’s left-back Wilson kept the lowest profile of the 1966 winners. Wilson built a successful undertaker’s business in Huddersfield after his football career, eventually retiring in 1997. Wilson lived in Huddersfield and made more than 250 appearances for the Terriers as well as playing for Everton, where he won the 1966 FA Cup, Oldham and, briefly, Bradford. He died aged 83 in May 2018 from Alzheimer’s disease.
Nobby Stiles
The midfield enforcer of Alf Ramsey’s team, Stiles helped nullify the threat of Eusebio in the semi-final against Portugal – and memorably danced on the pitch with the Jules Rimet Trophy after England’s extra-time triumph over West Germany. Part of Manchester United’s 1968 European Cup-winning team, Stiles, capped 28 times by England, made 392 appearances for the Red Devils, leaving for Middlesbrough in 1971. A career in coaching followed, with two stints at Preston, before a short-lived tenure at West Brom. Stiles also worked for a spell as a youth team coach at United, helping oversee the development of the renowned class of 92, which included the likes of David Beckham and the Neville brothers. In October 2020, Stiles died aged 78 following a long illness, having previously
