Gordon Banks may just have told the story before. But that does not mean it is not a good one. On Sunday night, the Football Writers’ Association held a tribute dinner in honour of Pele. The great man was intending to be there but illness had obliged him to cry off. Banks, however, was in attendance and received on Pele’s behalf a glass trophy. He was a good choice of stand-in: there was no way he was going to drop it.

In his speech, Banks revealed that the last time he had seen Pele, the legend had told him that wherever he went in the world, everyone he met wanted to talk to him about his goals. But when he came to England, all they ever wanted to talk about was that save.

No wonder. Made when England met Brazil in the 1970 World Cup, it was a save that defied everything, from the 40-degree heat to the laws of physics. Even 48 years on, to hear Banks describe how he not only reached Pele’s sledgehammer header as it speared towards the bottom corner of his goal, but flicked the ball high over the bar makes the hair on the back of the neck stand to attention.