Gordon Banks. And nobody else. Seriously. That’s where we must rank England’s current No1 now.
Others may have accrued more caps, some may have won more at club level. The debate can run and run about which of the 17 was the most technically adept.
But in tournament football, which is the entire point of the international game? Nobody gets close to the man who played on loan for Carlisle United in 2013/14, other than the immortal Banks.
Ex-England goalkeeper Gordon Banks, holds his 1966 World Cup winner's medal at a photocall at Christie's South Kensington, which forms the highlight of a forthcoming sale at the auction house of football memorabilia on 23/03/011966 World Cup winner Gordon Banks remains England's all-time greatest - but Pickford is now next in line (Image: PA)
If Thomas Tuchel’s side go on to win the 2026 World Cup – yes, yes, miles still to travel, I know – and Pickford continues to play such a dramatic part – then he can join the goalkeeping hero of 1966 on the very top rung.
Until then, it is right to acknowledge what we have now, rather than place others above him on an artificial or nostalgic basis. Pickford is next on the list, that superbly alert and defiant performance in the clamour of the Azteca the latest confident line drawn under his name.
When it comes to the crunch, nobody other than Banks in goalkeeping terms has helped England go further, or contributed as much to their advancement in successive tournaments. Nor has Pickford (*crosses fingers for the rest of this one*) ever blinked at a key moment, or been the unwitting or sloppy victim of something unfortunate.
This is his fifth major international tournament as England’s first-choice pick. Only Peter Shilton can rival that, and even he did not play every game in all five (Ray Clemence played in two of England’s games at the 1980 European Championships).
A legendary figure, Shilton. Still to date the Three Lions’ record appearance maker. But his tournament record does not match Pickford’s. In World Cups, Shilton and England exited at the second group stage (1982), quarter-finals (1986) and semi-finals (1990). In Euros, he and England fell at the group stages (1980, 1988).
Peter Shilton, left, and David Seaman, right, were outstanding England keepers - but their tournament exploits do not match Pickford's (Image: PA)
Pickford, in his five, has reached the semi-finals (2018) and quarter-finals (2022, 2026) of World Cups, with the latter still open to advancement. In Euros, his two tournaments took England to both finals.
In bald terms, then, Pickford is in front. As he is on deeds to help England along the way, notably the shoot-out against Colombia in 2018, the man-of-the-match exploits in Sweden in the next round, that sweep of clean sheets in Euro 2020, the two penalty saves that would have helped a more assured England to victory in the final against Italy, excellence throughout 2022, another crucial shoot-out stop against Switzerland in 2024, and now that terrific, victory-preserving display in the intensity of Mexico City.
That game also saw Pickford equal Shilton’s record for 17 England appearances at World Cups. He has got this far without the regrettable moments for which Shilton will, sadly, be to some degree remembered, for all his wider excellence: outjumped by Maradona in 1986, beaten, backpedalling, by Brehme and then failing to get a finger on any of those West German penalties in 1990.
Pickford's first tournament saw him star in England's run to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals (Image: PA)
It is the lot of other England keepers to be stalked by regret, to whatever degree the team’s downfall was on them. Bert Williams, the country’s first major international tournament keeper, was fated to concede perhaps their most infamous goal, to the USA’s Joe Gaetjens in 1950.
Peter Bonetti’s enforced intervention in 1970’s quarter-final against West Germany proved calamitous. David Seaman, who did certain superb things in tournaments (Euro 96 especially) was still Ronaldinho’d in 2002.
In other Euros, England’s record was not auspicious enough to make any keeper beyond Seaman a hero, until Pickford came along (others to play in that tournament include Chris Woods, Nigel Martyn and Joe Hart).
Pickford has consistently delivered in international tournaments (Image: PA)
World Cups the same; the likes of Colin McDonald, Ron Springett, Paul Robinson, Robert Green, David James, Hart and Ben Foster may have offered differing levels of protection and aptitude, but England were invariably ousted before the kind of advanced-stage progress that is all Pickford has known in the No1 jersey.
And no, one may not have imagined, at the time, that Carlisle United’s scattergun season of recruitment in 2013/14, which led them dismally to League One relegation, might have contained a future international legend (although, given the volume of players Graham Kavanagh signed, there were perhaps more chances than most).
Yet the Blues can enjoy their little part in Pickford’s ongoing story – those 18 games in a bleak campaign, a few months of character building, in the fourth of six loan moves before Sunderland, and then Everton, saw substantially what he would become.
Carlisle can continue to relish their small part in former loan player Pickford's journey (Image: Stuart Walker)
This being knockout football, and the sharp end of things now at the 2026 World Cup, there is always the risk that the latest story could be spiked when England next perform. Norway’s Erling Haaland is clearly capable of doing that by himself. Yet the fact the alternative remains in play, and the possibility of another dramatic Three Lions tale unfolding exists, is down in considerable part to their best custodian but one.
In the heat of the moment it can be difficult to pause and consider status like this. With Pickford, though, that time is long overdue.