England bids farewell to 'greatest English goalkeeper' Gordon Banks

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Hundreds of soccer fans lined the streets to pay tribute to Gordon Banks on Monday as his funeral cortege was driven through Stoke, with former England teammate Geoff Hurst hailing him as a "superstar".

Teammates from England's 1966 World Cup win and members of former clubs Stoke City and Leicester rode in a cortege from the Stoke stadium to a church funeral for Banks who died aged 81 last month of cancer.

Tributes to Gordon Banks after the funeral in Stoke-on-Trent, England, March 4, 2019. /VCG Photo

Hurst, who scored a hat-trick in the 1966 World Cup final, delivered a moving eulogy in which he referred to his teammate as "a superstar on the field, [but] off the field he was an ordinary guy with no airs or graces.

"He was a joker, a funny man, for over 50 years and every time we met during our careers or years after he would come up and joke."

The various achievements of Banks, who also won the League Cup with Stoke and Leicester, were displayed on a big screen as a chant of "England's number one" broke out.

The statue of Gordon Banks is covered in scarves and tributes after his funeral in Stoke-on-Trent, England, March 4, 2019. /VCG Photo

Banks was best known for the stunning one-handed save from a Pele bullet header that bounced awkwardly in front of him during England's group-stage game against Brazil at the 1970 World Cup.

Sheffield-born Banks made nearly 200 appearances for Stoke, in central England, and was named the club's president following the death of Stanley Matthews at the turn of the century.

(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)