Agile goalkeeper who helped Chelsea win three cups but fared less well for England in the 1970 World Cup finals
It was Peter Bonetti’s misfortune that despite his goalkeeping agility – his nickname “the Cat” was well deserved – and despite the many matches he played (more than 700 for Chelsea), he is remembered above all for a disastrous hot day in Mexico in the World Cup of 1970, a match in which Bonetti, who has died aged 78, should not even have been playing.
It was the quarter-final of the World Cup against West Germany, whom England had beaten four years earlier at Wembley in the final. The first-choice England goalkeeper was the unrivalled Gordon Banks but on the morning of the match in Léon, scheduled absurdly for the intense heat of noon and at a breathless altitude, Banks was to be seen outside the England team hotel, pallid of countenance, walking slowly across the lawn as he was supported by the anxious England doctor, Neil Phillips. He was suffering from food poisoning.
So it was that Bonetti played instead of Banks, though hardly in the ideal condition to do so, as he had not had a game for some time. When England squandered a 2-0 lead to lose to West Germany 3-2, Bonetti was largely made the villain of the piece.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/apr/12/peter-bonetti-obituary
