Steven Gerrard will tonight join an elite band of England footballers to earn 100 caps for the national side – a milestone only five other players have reached.

Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore are the most decorated of English centurions having been at the centre of 1966’s World Cup-winning team while Peter Shilton is one of the most celebrated keepers of all time, David Beckham a national institution and legendary Wolves centre half Billy Wright the man who started it all, making history in 1959 as the first person to hit 100 appearances. But there’s something special about Gerrard, his cavalier style of play the perfect blend of modern technical brilliance and old fashioned English industriousness.

To celebrate the occasion, here’s the Liverpool captain’s top five moments in an England shirt…

Debut star (vs. Ukraine, May 2000)

Gerrard came on for Michael Owen in a pre-Euro 2000 friendly having caught the eye of Kevin Keegan in the build-up to the tournament. An impressive cameo alongside Paul Scholes had fans predicting he was an England legend in the making. They weren’t wrong…

Demolition job (vs. Germany, September 2001)

The Liverpool midfielder truly arrived on the international scene with his performance in this 2002 World Cup qualifier in which England tore apart their fiercest rivals. 5-1 was the score at the final whistle, giving a nation hope for a new dawn of English football. It wasn’t to be but Gerrard, who was at the heart of that victory with a storming display, also scoring his first international goal, has rarely dropped below the quality he exhibited in that game.

World Cup screamer (vs. Trinidad and Tobago, June 2006)

Gerrard has notched up an admirable 19 goals for his country. This has to go down as one of the most memorable, a thunderbolt from 20 yards out with the game precariously placed at 1-0. His strike put the tie beyond Trinidad and Tobago and England into the next round of the 2006 World Cup.

Diamond in the rough (vs. USA, June 2010)

England’s 2010 World Cup campaign may have ended in disaster – a string of subpar performances saw Fabio Capello’s team scrape unconvincingly out of the group stages only to be smashed 4-1 by Germany in the knockout stages. One silver lining, however, was Gerrard who, elected captain, was one of the few players to replicate their bright club form at the tournament, scoring a fantastic team goal within the opening minutes of the opening game against USA.

Running the show (vs. Ukraine, June 2012)

Gerrard gave what team mate Wayne Rooney described as his best ever England performance against Ukraine, providing the striker with the cross that led to the goal that took England into the next round.

At 32, there are some who say Gerrard won’t make it much beyond his 100th cap. But if the insurmountable Scouser has proven anything in his career, it’s to never write him off.

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“Remember the name, Wayne Rooney!” exclaimed commentator Clive Tyldesley as one of the most exciting talents in English footballing history burst onto the scene ten years ago aged just 16, putting an unbeatable curling shot past Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman. He needn’t have bothered. In the decade since Rooney has never left the limelight. Remember him? Since 2002 you’ve been hardly able to avoid him.

The 26-year-old has scored a mesmerising 199 career goals to date and won almost every bit of silverware at club level there is to collect. Having moved to Manchester United from Everton in 2004 he has powered Sir Alex Ferguson’s men to four Premier League titles, two League Cups and a famous Champions League triumph in 2008 picking up along the way a wealth of personal accolades:  PFA Players’ Player of the Year once, PFA Fans’ Player of the Year twice, EPL Goal of the Season three times and BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year to name but a few.

But there’s more to Rooney than his trophy cabinet. A bullish forward known for his charges at defenders and thunderous finishing, there’s a directness to the England international that makes him a thrill to watch, perhaps even more so than his counterparts in Spain and beyond. Leo Messi is beautiful to watch. Rooney is exhilarating, the explosive Michael Bay action movie to the Barcelona star's elegant art flick.

There have been English forwards arguably more talented but few more fascinating. Michael Owen may have been won the prestigious FIFA Balloon D’or player of the year award in 2001 but his career soon faded. Rooney meanwhile has maintained the incendiary form of his early years for a decade now with only occasional blips.

Though his career has been chequered by personal life scandals and intrusions of the press that have sometimes led to dips in form he always comes back stronger. When in 2010 it was alleged he had solicited prostitutes while his wife Colleen was pregnant his form dropped and he fell out with United boss Ferguson that led to him handing in a transfer request.

His time at the top is over, predicted critics. But months later he was back to his electrifying best and putting away an astonishing overhead kick that was to set his place in Premier League folklore in stone. A deflected David Silva effort had put Manchester City within sight of a crucial point in the battle for the 2010-11 title when a 77th minute cross from Nani found Rooney for him to power into the net with jaw-dropping technique. The goal was later voted the best Premier League finish since its inception some 20 years ago. “If I could have bottled the buzz, it would make the best fizzy drink ever,” remarked the striker in his recent autobiography.

Rooney has also proved his maturity as he has grown older. Though he was famously sent off in an international match against Montenegro putting a dent in England’s Euro 2012 hopes before the tournament had even began, the 26-year-old has otherwise curbed his volatile temperament. The striker went the entirety of the 2011-12 season without a booking for United and his disciplinary record so far this campaign is equally clean.

Some argue that the downside of conquering his temperament is he has lost a certain fieriness in pursuit of the ball. But there’s no debating that Rooney has evolved into a more commanding player as his United career has progressed. His pass completion rate now consistently sits above the 80% mark and he is equally happy providing – as he is scoring as his elated reaction to his two assists for new strike partner Robin van Persie in last night’s Champions League tie proved.

All that is left for Rooney to achieve is international glory. The forward has been notoriously unlucky on the world stage, with injuries and suspensions ritualistically popping up prior to tournaments. But with Roy Hodgson earlier this year marking the Man United man out as a future England captain and an exciting new breed of players coming through the ranks including Tom Cleverley and Jack Wilshere, a long-awaited tournament triumph may not be too far off.

That might seem a stretch of the imagination after a succession of humbling tournaments, but if there's one thing you should know about the illustrious Wayne Rooney, it's never write him off.

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18 years ago today, Paul Scholes made his first team debut, scoring both goals as Manchester United overcame Port Vale in the Football League Cup. A lot has changed in football since but somehow the midfield maestro’s impact on the pitch remains the same – his passing range still unbeatable, the way he dictates games even more masterful and his probing play on the edge of the area still a constant source of goals for the Manchester club.

Though a Salford lad through and through – he was born not far from Old Trafford and on the rare occasions he talks to the TV cameras, does so with a strong Mancunian accent and sharp Northern sense of humour - there’s something distinctly un-English about Scholes.

In a footballing culture that idolises industrious runners and bullish charges forward, the 37-year-old is known for his patient passing play - since returning for Manchester United in January 2012 after a stab at retirement (“he was missing it too much,” says Sir Alex Ferguson) Scholes has maintained a 92.37% pass completion rate, losing possession on average once every 154 minutes.

It’s this sort of measured, elegant movement of the ball that has made champions of Spain and Barcelona – and Scholes may well be the inspiration. “Paul Scholes is a role model,” says the man regarded this generation’s pass-master, Xavi Hernandez. “For me – and I really mean this – he’s the best central midfielder I’ve seen in the last 15, 20 years. If he’d been Spanish he might have been rated more highly.”

Xavi isn’t the only great of the game to rate the Manchester United mainstay. “Scholes is undoubtedly the greatest midfielder of his generation,” argues Zinedine Zidane, while Brazil’s Socrates says: “He is good enough to play for Brazil. I love to watch Scholes, to see him pass, the boy with the red hair and red shirt.” Typically, despite his incredible reputation among his peers, Scholes is quick to play down his own talents: “when [my career is] over I just want to be able look in the mirror and say, well, you were a half-decent player.”

For Scholes’ legion of admirers, that humility is part of what makes him special even beyond his feats on the pitch. “No celebrity bullshit, no self-promotion – an amazingly gifted player who remained an unaffected human being,” says Roy Keane. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger meanwhile suggests: “he [does] not get completely what he deserves as a player because he’s not a media lion. He’s not the one who runs after the media to be in the papers. I respect that.”

There’s a sense that Scholes is a player whose focus is resolutely on the pitch, with little time for the glittering lifestyle that comes with life at the top – a dying breed of footballer, particularly among the English.

Perhaps it should be of no surprise, then, that Scholes’ England career never really took off in the way it should have and ended prematurely, his managers at international level seemingly unable to accommodate a player whose approach to football is arguably more sophisticated than that of the rest of the team. Having guided Manchester United to such success in his time at Old Trafford – the 37-year-old has won 10 Premier League titles, the Champions League twice, 3 FA Cups, 5 Community Shields and 2 League Cups in his 18 years at the club – it’s tempting to wonder what England could have achieved had one coach had the guile to build their team around the dynamic, progressive Scholes rather than his flashier counterparts.

When Scholes lines up against Liverpool tomorrow, he'll make his 701st appearance in United colours (the third highest number after Ryan Giggs and Bobby Charlton). But whatever the outcome of that particular grudge match, his reputation as one of the game's greatest unsung heroes is beyond dispute.

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Frank Lampard has been at the heart of Chelsea’s every success over the past eleven years, guiding the London team in their resurgence from Premier League also-rans to kings of Europe. The 34-year-old has been one of the few constants in a tumultuous decade of highs, lows and ever changing coaching staff for the Blues, his darting runs into opposition territory helping drive the club into a new era of success that has included domestic league and cup trophies as well as the Champions League crown in May.

An industrious pass master, Lampard might just be the best midfielder of his generation, but his record reads more like that of a striker. In 377 appearances for Chelsea, he has racked up a jaw-dropping 186 goals making him the club’s third top scorer of all time, while at international level he’s similarly prolific. In Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Moldova, the Londoner slotted home twice to push his tally of England goals to 25. Now with more goals than greats like Sir Geoff Hurst and Tommy Lawton, the question looms – is he the best goal-scoring midfielder the English game has ever seen?

The first Premier League midfielder to net 150 times, Lampard was named player of the decade by Opta in 2009 as the player to feature in the most wins, with the highest number of league appearances, fourth highest scoring rate and second most assists behind a certain Ryan Giggs. Since 2007, the £11 million signing from West Ham has contributed almost a quarter of Chelsea’s goals, his surges into the box a constant threat in the Blues’ attacking set-up. Rarer still, he’s a reliable English penalty taker, scoring from the spot a combined 69 times for club and country.

Beyond his excellence moving forward, Lampard is every bit as comfortable dropping deep and serving the team’s needs. When Chelsea beat Champions League holders Barcelona to book a place in the final it was Ramires and Fernando Torres who scored the goals but Lampard who shaped the match, his marshalling of the midfield after John Terry was dismissed in the first half of the second leg the inspiration behind one of the most incredible comebacks in European history. Three weeks later, he was no less influential as Chelsea faced a resolute Bayern Munich side, captaining the side to the glory owner Roman Abramovich had so craved since his takeover of the club in 2003.

Though noted for his intelligence on the ball, his intelligence off the pitch is less remarked upon. However, Lampard is one of the game's more articulate figures, a thoughtfulness evident in his post-match interviews that flies in the face of his image of flashiness perhaps cultivated by his showbiz partner Christine Bleakley. When the midfielder was named the 2005 PFA Footballer Of The Year, he dedicated the award to a 10-year-old Chelsea fan whose funeral he had attended earlier that day after the youngster succumbed to cancer in a speech that put into perspective the spiralling nature of the modern game.

Despite his advancing years, Lampard's presence at the core of Roberto Di Matteo’s team continues to defy even the best opposition - and often belief. But as England boss Roy Hodgson says of his midfield lynchpin, age is just a number and quality is permanent.

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Few players’ rise to the top of the English game has been as graciously welcomed as that of Manchester City keeper Joe Hart. For decades, England have been plagued by their lack of an assured presence between the sticks, the regularity of crosses flapped at and shots spilled in high profile international matches as much a trope of the national game as brass bands, bulldog spirit and penalty shoot-out misery.

But Hart’s emergence has brought about a fresh optimism. Not since Peter Shilton has England had such a commanding, agile shot stopper at their disposal, and with his performances growing in spectacle and assurance each week for the Premier League champions, there’s a genuine sense that Hart may be the man to return England to the world-beaters they once were.

At club level, he has proven himself to be up there with the very best. When Manchester City claimed their first title in 44 years in the dying seconds of last season, it was Sergio Aguero who scored the goal but Joe Hart the cameras panned to. The irony was rife – for all the billions of pounds spent turning Roberto Mancini’s squad into one of the best in Europe, the man who had driven them to a much sought after Premier League trophy was bought for just £600,000.

Hart made 20 clean sheets in 2011/12 (a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact his defence are considered the weak link in Mancini’s team) to put the Blues on their way to glory, pulling off stunning save after stunning save to deny opponents. But it was more than his performances that made him the face of Manchester City’s most glorious campaign. In a glitzy, star-studded squad during a season marred by Carlos Tevez’s petulance and the outlandishness of one Mario Balotelli, Hart was its likeable counterpoint: consistent, dedicated, professional. To the Eastlands crowd, that title-clinching goal belonged to him as much as it did Aguero.

That the 25-year-old, who started his career for Shrewsbury Town while still studying for his GCSEs, was recently chosen to appear on the cover of the latest in EA’s popular run of football games, FIFA 13, is further proof of his currency – usually the honour is bestowed to goalscorers and forward-drifting midfield maestros. Maybe it helps that Hart is not without his own attacking acumen – in addition to his astonishing athleticism and agility in goal, he’s regularly seen chasing the game in the opposition’s box, running up for corners and causing havoc.

A determined performer and a born leader, he is as well rounded a keeper as the world has seen. “Iker Casillas is regarded by many as being the best in Europe, if not the world,” says Hart’s England predecessor David James, “bur Joe Hart kicks a better ball than him, fills his area better than him and can produce any save that Casillas makes. Everything about him is superb.”

A more surprising admirer, though just as full of praise, is Sir Alex Ferguson. The Manchester United manager isn’t famed for dishing out compliments to opposition players, let alone those from his fiercest rivals, but admitted last year that missing the opportunity to sign Hart was one of the biggest regrets of his career. “I could have bought Joe Hart for £100,000 so we all make mistakes," said Ferguson.  "If you look at the England goalkeeper situation for the last 20 years, I would think he's easily the best."

At this summer’s Euro 2012 he left that beyond any doubt, arriving at his first international tournament in the number 1 jersey with the confidence of a World Cup veteran.

His organisational presence was felt as England looked a transformed side, their discipline in wins against Ukraine and Sweden a world apart from the shambolic performances in South Africa two years previous, engineered on the pitch by the City keeper. Roy Hodgson’s team of course eventually went out on penalties to an impressive Italy team, but that Hart and co. were able to keep the likes of Andrea Pirlo and Antonio Di Natale at bay for 120 minutes was an achievement in itself.

So talismanic was Hart during those matches that people have begun to whisper. Steven Gerrard, the current England captain, is 32 now and his inclusion in the 2014 World Cup is not guaranteed. Might the Manchester City man take the captain’s armband? Time will tell. In the meantime, if the Sky Blues wish to retain their Premier League crown, they’ll be relying on Hart to produce the same incredible feats in goal that brought frustration to strikers and crowds to their feet last season.

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An Andrea Pirlo masterclass and another painful penalty shootout, and England are heading home early from Euro 2012. You might expect Icons' London HQ to be a sombre place today, but instead of wallowing in England-induced misery, we’re doing our best to look on the bright side...

While Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney may be packing their bags, we are delighted to have three international Icons competing in the semi-finals of Euro 2012. We're all about the world's best players at Icons, and these three are probably the best of the tournament so far.

Andrea Pirlo
“I always believed I was number one and I believe I have demonstrated it again this season,” so said Andrea Pirlo before he had even kicked a ball at the Euros. That self-confidence and class was all too evident for England last night, as his sublime 'Panenka' penalty rolled into the net past a helpless Joe Hart. Pirlo's form in Poland and Ukraine has been superb. As well as his stunning man-of-the-match performance in the quarter-final against England, he contributed two assists and a beautiful goal from a free-kick as Italy qualified from Group C along with Spain. We are delighted to have his signed Italy shirt available for pre-order HERE.

Andrés Iniesta
At Barcelona, a certain Leo Messi tends to grab the headlines, but for Spain at Euro 2012, there can be little doubt that Andrés Iniesta has been the main man. Spain manager Vicente del Bosque has been criticised for flooding his side with midfielders at the expense of an out-and-out striker, but with playmakers of Iniesta's quality at his disposal, who can blame him?! Iniesta has been the crucial difference for La Roja throughout the tournament. He is a player capable of unpicking even the most crowded defences, and was named man-of-the-match in their Group C games against both Italy and Croatia. Buy his signed shirt, boot or photo HERE.

Cristiano Ronaldo
Last but certainly not least is Cristiano Ronaldo. The irrepressible Portuguese has got people thinking he might just win Portugal the trophy on his own. After a superb brace against the Netherlands in Group B and a brilliant headed winner in Portugal’s quarter-final against the Czech Republic, the Portugal skipper finds himself as the tournament’s joint-top scorer with three goals, and faces a mouth-watering semi-final clash against Iniesta’s Spain. Never one to pass up an opportunity to score, Ronaldo has had more shots at Euro 2012 than the entire England squad combined. Get 1/3 off his signed Portugal photo HERE.

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As Roberto Mancini and his star-studded squad look to usher in a glorious new era for Manchester City, they could do a lot worse than look to Mike Summerbee for inspiration.

Summerbee, Icons Legend of the Week #15, was the star of the show for City during the late sixties and early seventies, the most successful period in the club's history. In three seasons from 1967-70 Summerbee and City won four trophies under the fabled managerial partnership of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. The 1967/68 First Division title was followed by the 1969 FA Cup, and a League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup double in 1970.

Some 41 years later, with owner Sheikh Mansour's billions pumping through the club, Manchester City looks an altogether different landscape. A return to their former glories looks a realistic possibility now, and with Summerbee as Club Ambassador, City retain an important link to their glory years.

Occupying City's right flank, Summerbee combined brilliant wing play and tireless running with a fiery temperament and tough tackling that ensured he was rarely far from the spotlight. His antics often enraged away fans, but he built up a great rapport with the City faithful, and was known for chatting to supporters as he sped up and down the wing during matches. 

Off the pitch he was George Best's closest friend (pictured together above), and during the swinging sixties the riotous pair were notorious for the extravagant party lifestyle they enjoyed in Manchester. They even started up their own clothing business together, although Best was frank in admitting that the shop's main purpose was to attract female attention.

Back on the field, while Best was dazzling at Manchester United, Summerbee was busy shaping his own legacy at City, making 357 league appearances between 1965-75, and scoring 47 goals.

Summerbee was born in Preston in December 1942, and began his professional career at Swindon Town, for whom he made his debut as a 16-year-old in 1959. After over 200 appearances for the Wiltshire club, City manager Joe Mercer forked out £35,000 to take him to Manchester. Summerbee made an instant impact at City, and in his first season he was the only player at the club to start every single match.

Summerbee's talent was combined with that of Colin Bell and Francis Lee, and together the trio formed the backbone of the most entertaining and successful City side there has ever been. While Summerbee sparkled on the wing, Bell elegantly controlled the middle of the park and Lee banged the goals in up front. City became the team to beat, and Summerbee embodied their exciting and entertaining brand of football.

Summerbee made his debut for England in 1968 and went on to win eight caps in total, scoring once. He left City in 1975, and in the years that followed the club began a long period of decline. Summerbee - whose son Nicky also played for City during the nineties - is a Manchester City man, and he would love to see the club return to former glories, albeit watching from the stands this time.

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With grace and skill in abundance, Glenn Hoddle was a wonderfully gifted playmaker and, in many ways, an atypical English midfielder. Icons Legend of the Week #13 was an inspiration to a generation of players for whom technique was more important than the ability to run all day.

Voted Tottenham Hotspur's greatest player of all time, Hoddle was a sublime passer and a beautiful player to watch. After 12 glowing years, close to 500 appearances and 88 league goals for Spurs he moved for a spell at French side Monaco, before becoming player-manager at Swindon Town and later Chelsea. He hung up his boots in 1995 and went on to become England manager in 1996.

Hoddle joined Spurs as a schoolboy apprentice in April 1974 following a recommendation from another Spurs legend, Martin Chivers. He made his first team debut as a 17-year-old, coming off the bench against Norwich City in August 1875, but it wasn't until February 1976 that he made his first start in the First Division. He announced his arrival in sensational style, beating Stoke and England goalkeeper Peter Shilton with an outstanding long-range effort.

The 1979/80 season heralded Hoddle's emergence as a truly top-class player. With 19 goals in 41 league games he was deservedly named PFA Young Player of the Year. His breathtaking skill, vision and eye for the spectacular were at odds with the traditional British philosophy of tireless running and gutsy determination, but in Hoddle Spurs had unearthed a gem. Equally adept with both feet, as a youngster, Hoddle was used in the centre of midfield and on the wing. He went on to make the central birth his own.

Hoddle was the midfield fulcrum and creative hub of Spurs' great side of the 1980s. In 1981 he starred in Spurs sixth FA Cup win, scoring in the Final and in the Final replay against Manchester City. The following year Spurs retained the FA Cup with victory over Queens Park Rangers and secured 4^th place, their highest league finish since 1971. Two years later, Hoddle was the driving force behind Spurs' 1984 UEFA Cup triumph, despite missing the final due to injury. He put in a particularly memorable performance in their 6-2 Second Round aggregate win against a Feyenoord side featuring Dutch legend Johan Cruyff. Cruyff was so impressed by Hoddle's showing that he went into the Spurs dressing room at White Hart Lane to offer him his shirt after the match.

By this time Hoddle was already an established England international, and before his move to Monaco in 1987 he had already won 44 caps and featured prominently in the World Cups and European Championships of the 1980s. In total he won 53 caps and scored eight goals during an international career that lasted until 1988.

Then Monaco manager Arsene Wenger was the man who took Hoddle across the channel to France. Ironically, the two would come up against each other in the North London derby as managers of Spurs and Arsenal some years later. Hoddle scored 27 goals in 69 Ligue 1 games for Monaco. He inspired them to a title-win in his first season and was voted the Best Foreign Player in French Football. His exploits with Monaco helped to significantly improve the standing of English players in foreign countries.

Hoddle has found himself at the centre of stormy controversies on occasion, and as a manager he never enjoyed the greatest success. But putting all that aside, his on-pitch achievements at Tottenham and Monaco demand not to be forgotten. Hoddle was the most technically gifted English player of his generation, and his exciting and attractive style made him a rare breed. At a time when Fabio Capello's England are being left behind by a supremely technical Spain side, they could use a few more players like Glenn Hoddle. 

One of the Premier League's greatest ever entertainers and a true cult hero, this week's Forward Friday is "Le God", Matt Le Tissier.

Le Tissier was one of the most gifted English players of his generation. A wonderful dribbler with excellent poise and ball control, the Southampton legend oozed class, and had the ability to light up a match with a single touch. He famously rebuffed the offers of bigger clubs to stay with the south coast club for the duration of his career.

His scoring record in Southampton's red and white, like so many of his goals, was nothing short of remarkable. A club of limited stature and resources, Southampton only finished inside the top 10 on one occasion (1989/90) during Le Tissier's 16 seasons there. But Le Tissier, who played as an attacking midfielder, still managed 162 goals in 443 league appearances. Southampton frequently found themselves battling against the drop, but the inspirational Le Tissier kept them afloat almost single-handedly. During their talisman's time at the club, they never once suffered relegation, and after Mick Channon, he is the second-highest scorer in the club's history.

Le Tissier's breakthrough came in the late 80s. After notching 24 goals in 44 appearances during the 1989/90 campaign, he was named PFA Young Player of the Season. His top-scoring season, however, was 1994/95, when he hit 30 in 49 games. It was an outstanding return for a midfielder at a mid-table side. Le Tissier was a frequent scorer of wonderful and outlandish solo goals, and that year his dipping 40-yard drive against Blackburn Rovers was named Match of the Day Goal of the Season.

On 2 April 2000, his last minute penalty for Southampton in a 2-1 defeat to Sunderland brought his tally of Premiership goals to 100, making him only the sixth player and first midfielder to reach the mileston. Indeed, penalties were another area in which Le Tissier excelled. Of the 49 he took for the Saints, he only missed one.

Le Tissier rejected offers from Spurs in 1990 and Chelsea in 1996, insisting he was happy playing for Southampton. His loyalty to the Saints and his refusal to move to a bigger club may well have hindered his England chances, but his devotion was tremendously admirable.

Le Tissier was never fully appreciated by England managers, and his abundant talents were sadly wasted at international level. In total he won eight caps, but never managed a goal. His nadir came when he was controversially overlooked by manager Glenn Hoddle for the 1998 World Cup squad. Having elected to leave the master of penalty taking at home, it was ironic that Hoddle's England were eventually knocked out in a penalty shoot-out by Argentina. That heartbreaking omission signaled the end of Le Tissier's involvement with the national team. It was England's loss.

A man Spain and Barcelona midfielder Xavi lists among his childhood heroes, Le Tissier was one of the most exciting players of the 90s. His sublime ability and his magical goals will live long in the memory of all football lovers.

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Gordon Banks won the World Cup with England in 1966, but the most memorable moment of the goalkeeper's career came four years later in Mexico.

7^th June, 1970. At Estadio Jalisco in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, World Cup holders England were finding themselves under enormous pressure in the first half of their group match against a Brazil side regarded as the greatest in World Cup history.

Advancing with the ball from the right back position, Brazil captain Carlos Alberto sprayed a low pass over the half way line into the path of Jairzinho. With remarkable poise and balance, the Brazil winger sped past England left back Terry Cooper at full throttle and dug out a looping cross to the far post, where Pele had timed his run to perfection.

The Brazil legend leapt above English right back Tommy Wright and met the ball with a thumping downward header. The ball bounced off the turf towards the bottom corner of the net, but as Pele wheeled away in celebration, Banks' pulled off the most remarkable of saves. The England keeper was still scrambling across the goal line as Pele rose to head the ball, and his reaction was nothing short of phenomenal. Twisting his body and diving backwards in the blink of an eye, Banks somehow clawed the ball up and over the crossbar using his thumb. For a few moments, the watching world struggled to make sense of what had just happened. "Gordon Banks, pick that out of the net!" exclaimed the elated BBC commentator once the dust had settled. "The save of the World Cup," he added. But this wasn't just the save of the tournament; this was quite possibly the greatest save of all time.

It was not just the technical prowess and lightening speed of Banks' save that made it so special, however. The stage could hardly have been bigger. This was Pele, the greatest striker the world has ever seen, up against one of the world's finest keepers. What's more, England were reigning world champions, while Brazil were the finest international side of all time. It was a moment fit for such an occasion.

"It's something people will always remember me for," said Banks in 2005. "They won't remember me for winning the World Cup [in 1966], it'll be for that save," he added. Brazil went on to win the game 1-0 thanks to a second half strike from Jairzinho, but England still progressed to the quarter-finals by beating Romania and Czechoslovakia in their other group games. It was in a rematch of the 1966 final against West Germany that their hopes unraveled, and it was no coincidence that England were without Banks for that quarter-final defeat due to an upset stomach. Replacement keeper Peter Bonetti had been slow to react for the German's first goal, and with the scores at 2-2 after 90 minutes, Gerd Muller's extra-time heartbreaker sent England packing. "Of all the players to lose, we had to lose him," rued England manager Alf Ramsey over his first-choice keeper. Brazil, meanwhile, went on to win their third World Cup in emphatic fashion, thrashing Italy 4-1 in the final.

Banks won 73 England caps in an international career that spanned nine years starting in 1963. From 1965 to 1972, he was indisputably England's first-choice goalkeeper. At club-level, Banks' career took off after he was signed by First Division Leicester City from Chesterfield for £7,000 in 1959. After 293 league appearances for the Foxes, he moved to Stoke City in 1967, where he stayed until 1972. He won two League Cups during his time at Leicester and Stoke, but never experienced club success to rival that of his international career.

To remember Banks for one moment alone would be a disservice to the man who is still widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers ever to have played the game. Banks could never match the feeling of lifting the World Cup in 1966, but at that moment on 7^th June, 1970 in the sweltering heat of Guadalajara, he couldn't have been too far off.

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