Gary Lineker

Personal information
Full name	Gary Winston Lineker
Date of birth	(1960-11-30) 30 November 1960 (age 51)
Place of birth	Leicester, England
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Youth career
1976–1978	Leicester City
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1978–1985	Leicester City	194	(95)
1985–1986	Everton	41	(30)
1986–1989	Barcelona	103	(42)
1989–1992	Tottenham Hotspur	105	(67)
1992–1994	Nagoya Grampus Eight	23	(9)
Total		466	(243)
National team
1984–1992	England	80	(48)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Gary Winston Lineker, OBE (born 30 November 1960), is a former English footballer, who played as a striker. He is a sports broadcaster for the BBC, Al Jazeera Sports and Eredivisie Live. He remains England's top scorer in the FIFA World Cup finals, with ten goals.

Lineker began his football career at Leicester City and became known as a prolific goalscorer; despite failing to score in his first ten games, he finished as the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984–85 and earned his first England cap. He then moved to League Champions Everton where he remained a clinical finisher, scoring 40 goals in 57 games. His first team honours came at Barcelona, where he won the Copa del Rey in 1988 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1989. He returned to England in 1989, joining Tottenham Hotspur, and over three seasons he scored 67 goals in 105 games and won the FA Cup. Lineker's final club was Nagoya Grampus Eight and he retired in 1994 after two seasons at the Japanese side.

Lineker made his England debut in 1984 and over the following eight years earned 80 caps and scored 48 goals, finishing as England's all-time second highest scorer behind Bobby Charlton. His international goals-to-games ratio remains one of the best for the country and he is regarded as one of the all-time best English strikers. He was top scorer in the 1986 World Cup and received the Golden Boot, the only time an Englishman has achieved this feat. He is also the only player to have won the English golden boot with 3 different clubs (Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur). After his retirement from football he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. He moved in to broadcasting, working at the BBC, firstly working as a pundit on Match of the Day before he went on to present the flagship show. Lineker also worked on other programmes at the BBC. He led a consortium that invested in his old club Leicester, saving it from bankruptcy, and was appointed honorary vice-president. Since 1994, Lineker has featured in several television commercials for Walkers Crisps. He has four sons with his ex-wife Michelle and is now married to model Danielle Lineker.

Despite his long career, Lineker was never cautioned by a referee for foul play (never once receiving a yellow or red card).^{[1] [2]} As a result of this accomplishment he was honoured in 1990 with the FIFA Fair Play Award.

In a senior career which spanned 16 years and 567 competitive games, Lineker scored a total of 282 goals at club level. Added to the 48 goals he scored in internationals, he managed a total of 330 goals.

Early life[link]

Lineker was born in Leicester to Barry and Margaret Lineker (both born 1939). His middle name came from Winston Churchill, with whom he shares his birthday. He has one younger brother, Wayne who is two years younger. Lineker's father was a greengrocer in Leicester and he grew up with his family in the city, playing football with his brother Wayne.^[3]

Lineker first attended Caldecote Road School^[4] (Caldecote Juniors), Braunstone in Leicester (east of the Meridian Centre) although he lived outside the borough. He went to the City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School (now City of Leicester College) on Downing Drive in Evington, inside the borough of Leicester due to his preference for football rather than rugby, which was the main sport of most schools near his home. As a result he lived with his grandmother, who lived in the city, while attending school. Lineker was equally talented at both football and cricket. From the ages of 11 to 16 he captained the Leicestershire Schools cricket team and had felt that he had a higher chance of succeeding at it rather than football.^[5] He later stated on They Think It's All Over that as a teenager he idolised former England captain David Gower, who was playing for Leicestershire at the time.^[6]

Lineker left school with four O Levels. One of his teachers wrote on his report card that he "concentrates too much on football" and that he would "never make a living at that". He then joined the youth academy at Leicester City in 1976.^[5]

Club career[link]

Leicester City[link]

Lineker began his career at his home town club Leicester City after leaving school. Lineker began scoring prolifically in the early 1980s, helping Leicester win promotion to the First Division in 1980 and again in 1983. Lineker's career at Leicester started slowly and was mostly kept to odd appearances. However he began to break into being a regular starter in 1981 and forging a prolific strike-force alongside Alan Smith, Lineker hit 19 goals in all competitions in the 1981–82 season. The following season he was the English Second Division's top scorer as he helped Leicester win promotion to the top flight. Despite the step up, his scoring exploits continued and he was runner-up only to Ian Rush in the goalscoring charts the following season and then went one better as he was the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984–85 with 24 goals. By this stage, however, he was attracting the attention of bigger clubs, and a move from Filbert Street was looking certain.

Everton[link]

In the 1985 close season, Lineker was sold to defending league champions Everton for £800,000, and scored 40 goals in 57 games for his new team. He was again the First Division's leading goal scorer, this time with 30 goals, and helped Everton finish second in the league. While he was at Everton, they reached the FA Cup final for the third year in a row but they lost 3–1 to Liverpool, despite Lineker giving them an early lead when he outpaced Alan Hansen to score. Liverpool (double winners) had also pipped Everton to the title by just two points. "I was only on Merseyside a short time, nine or 10 months in total really, but it was still a happy time personally, while professionally it was one of the most successful periods of my career," he says. "I still have an affinity towards Everton."

Lineker scored three hat-tricks for Everton; at home to Birmingham City in a 4–1 league win on 31 August 1985, at home to Manchester City in a 4–0 home win on 11 February 1986, and then in the penultimate league game of the season on 3 May 1986, when they kept their title hopes alive with a 6–1 home win over Southampton. On his final league appearance, he scored twice in a 3–1 home win over a West Ham side whose title hopes had just disappeared. However, he and his colleagues were denied title glory as Liverpool also won their final league game of the season at Chelsea.^[7]

Barcelona[link]

After winning the Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Lineker was signed by Barcelona for £2,800,000. Barcelona were being managed by former Queens Park Rangers manager Terry Venables, who had also brought in Manchester United and Wales striker Mark Hughes.

His Golden Boot-winning performance at the finals led to much anticipation of success at the Camp Nou, and he did not disappoint, scoring 21 goals in 41 games during his first season, including a hat-trick in a 3–2 win over arch rivals Real Madrid.^[8] Barcelona went on to win the Copa del Rey in 1988 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1989. Lineker played in Barcelona's home and away defeats to Dundee United. Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff decided to play Lineker on the right of the midfield and he eventually lost his place in the first team.

Tottenham Hotspur[link]

Alex Ferguson attempted to sign Lineker to partner his ex-Barcelona team-mate Mark Hughes in attack, but Lineker spurned the Manchester club. Instead, he signed with Tottenham Hotspur in July 1989. Over three seasons, he scored 67 goals in 105 games and won the FA Cup at White Hart Lane.

He finished as top scorer in the First Division in the 1989–90 season, scoring 24 goals as Spurs finished third.

He finally collected an English piece of silverware when he won the 1991 FA Cup Final with Spurs, who beat Nottingham Forest 2–1. This was despite Lineker having a goal controversially disallowed for offside and also having a penalty saved by goalkeeper Mark Crossley.^[9] Lineker had contributed to Tottenham's run to the final. In the semi-final he scored twice in a 3–1 win over North London rivals Arsenal.^[10]

He was the top division's second-highest goalscorer in 1991–92 with 28 goals from 35 games, behind Ian Wright, who scored 29 times in 42 games. Despite Lineker's personal performance, Tottenham finished this final pre-Premier League season in 15th place.

Nagoya Grampus Eight[link]

Lineker ended his career with an injury-plagued spell in Japan's J. League with Nagoya Grampus Eight, where he made 23 appearances over two seasons, scoring nine times, before announcing his retirement in the autumn of 1994.

He officially joined Nagoya Grampus Eight after playing his final game for Spurs on 2 May 1992, when he scored the consolation goal in a 3–1 defeat by Manchester United on the last day of the season. He had accepted their offer of a two-year contract on 20 November 1991.^[11] Shortly before accepting the offer from Nagoya Grampus Eight, Tottenham had rejected an offer from ambitious Second Division club Blackburn Rovers, who had recently been taken over by steel baron Jack Walker.^[12]

International career[link]

He first played for the England national team against Scotland in 1984. He played five games in the 1986 World Cup, and was top scorer of the tournament with six goals, winning the Golden Boot, making him the first and to this day only English player to have done so. He scored the second quickest hat-trick ever at a FIFA World Cup tournament against Poland—in doing so, he became only the second English player to score a hat-trick at a FIFA World Cup. He played most of the tournament wearing a lightweight cast on his forearm. He did score for England in the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina, but the game ended in defeat as Diego Maradona scored twice for the opposition (the first goal being the "Hand of God" handball) and England went out of the competition. Lineker also scored a brace against Paraguay in the second round of the tournament. Lineker combined with Peter Beardsley, who also scored—to effortlessly dismantle the South American team's defence.

In 1988, Lineker played in the Euro 1988, but failed to score as England lost all three Group games. It was later established that he had been suffering from hepatitis.^[13][14]

In the 1990 World Cup, he scored four goals to help England reach the semi-finals after a string of draws and narrow victories. After Andreas Brehme sent England 1–0 down, he scored an equaliser after receiving a pass from Paul Parker and escaping from two German defenders, but the West Germans triumphed in the penalty shoot-out and went on to win the trophy. Later he said: "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win."

He retired from international football with 80 caps and 48 goals, one fewer goal than Bobby Charlton's England record (although Charlton took 26 more caps to score his one extra goal). In what proved to be his last England match, against Sweden at Euro 1992, he was substituted by England coach Graham Taylor, in favour of Arsenal striker Alan Smith, ultimately denying Lineker the chance to equal—or even better—Charlton's record of 49 goals.^[15] He had earlier missed a penalty that would have brought him level, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil.^[16] He was visibly upset at the decision, not looking at Taylor as he took the bench.

He scored four goals in an England match on two occasions and is one of very few players never to have been given a yellow card or a red card in any type of game.^[17]

Media career[link]

Following retirement from professional football, he developed a career in the media, initially on BBC Radio 5 Live and as a football pundit before replacing Des Lynam as the BBC's anchorman for football coverage, including their flagship football television programme Match of the Day, and as a team captain on the acerbic sports game show, They Think It's All Over from 1995 to 2003, where he was heavily (though affectionately) ridiculed for being a "goal hanger", described as "lethal from twelve inches" – a parody of Lineker's short-range scoring prowess. Following the departure of Steve Rider from the BBC, Lineker, who is a keen recreational golfer with a handicap of four, became the new presenter for the BBC's golf coverage. Despite receiving some criticism from his peers,^[3] he continued to front the BBC's coverage of the Masters and The Open, where he put his language skills to good use by giving an impromptu interview in Spanish with Argentinian Andrés Romero.^[18]

He presented a six-part TV Series for the BBC in 1998 (directed by Lloyd Stanton) called Golden Boots,^[19] with other football celebrities. It was an extensive history of the World Cup focusing on the 'Golden Boots' (top scorers).

In 2002, Lineker took on his first acting role, barring roles playing himself in films such as Bend It Like Beckham or in the adapted-for-television stage play An Evening with Gary Lineker, as the voice of Underground Ernie on the BBC's children's channel, CBeebies. Both Gary and Michelle Lineker make a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-them' appearance as diners leaving a restaurant in the 1993 Eric Idle film Splitting Heirs.

In 2003, Lineker was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame.

In 2005, Lineker was sued for defamation by Australian footballer Harry Kewell over comments Lineker had made writing in his column in the Sunday Telegraph about Kewell's transfer from Leeds United to Liverpool. However the jury was unable to reach a verdict. It transpired in the case that the article had actually been ghost-written by a journalist at the Sunday Telegraph following a telephone interview with Lineker.^[20]

In December 2008, Lineker appeared on the ITV1 television programme Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Christmas Special where he and English rugby union player Austin Healey won £50,000 for the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation.

In 2009, Lineker and his wife Danielle hosted a series of the BBC's Northern Exposure, following on from Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen from the previous year in visiting and showcasing locations throughout Northern Ireland.^[21]

In May 2010, Lineker resigned from his role as columnist for The Mail on Sunday in protest over the sting operation against Lord Triesman that jeopardised England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup. Triesman resigned as chairman of the bid and the FA on 16 May 2010 after the publication of a secret recording of a conversation between the peer and a former ministerial aide, during which he claimed that Spain and Russia were planning to bribe referees at the World Cup in South Africa.^[22] Lineker currently anchors the English language football coverage for Al Jazeera Sports, which is broadcast throughout much of the Middle East.

Walkers advertisements[link]

His popularity has enabled him to appear in a light-hearted series of commercials for Walkers, playing a comical role as an arch-villain which sends up his reputation as a nice guy. He has been fronting these adverts since 1995, making this one of the longest running advertising campaigns ever. Walkers, a Leicester-based British producer of snack foods, temporarily named their salt and vinegar crisps after Lineker in the late 1990s—they were labelled 'Salt-n-Lineker'. This was also because his favourite flavour crisps are salt and vinegar.^{[23][dead link]} Lineker's involvement with Walkers caused Mark E. Smith, singer with The Fall, to coin the nickname 'Crisp Man' for him.

Video games[link]

Software house Gremlin released Gary Lineker's Superstar Soccer in 1987, Gary Lineker's Superskills in 1988, and Gary Lineker's Hot Shot in 1989 for 8-bit platforms.

In 1998, Lineker provided his voice (along with Des Lynam) for the menu screens in EA Sports' World Cup 98. In 2001, Lineker was approached by game makers Codemasters to front the LMA Manager series on PlayStation. Lineker would pair up with Alan Hansen, fellow MOTD pundit to voice the post match comments on the game, with Barry Davies voicing the commentary. Since then the game has sold millions of copies and in LMA Manager 2006, Lineker voices news items and the cup draws on the game. In 2004 he was also chosen to front the Codemasters England International Football game, with him voicing the team selection and the pre- and post-match menus.

Personal life[link]

Lineker was made a freeman of the City of Leicester (which entitles him to graze his sheep—should he have any—on Town Hall Square) in 1995 and he is often referred to as "Leicester's favourite son". As a youngster, he famously worked on his family's stall in Leicester Market. Lineker still helped out on the stall at the height of his playing career during the late 1980s and early 1990s, though usually only in the closed season. His links with cricket were renewed when he was invited to become Honorary President of Kent-based wandering cricket club, Paraguayan Elbows CC.^[24] The club, which was founded in 1986, was named in his honour after an incident in that summer's World Cup match between England and Paraguay.

Lineker married Michelle Cockayne in 1986, but they divorced in August 2006. They announced their split in April 2006 but stated that the situation was amicable.^[25] They have four sons, George, Harry, Tobias, and Angus. His oldest son George survived a rare form of leukaemia as a baby in the early 1990s;^[3] Lineker now supports children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent and has since appeared in adverts encouraging people to give blood as a result. Lineker has been actively involved with other cancer charities such as Leukaemia Busters, where between 1994 and 2005 Gary and Michelle were the charity’s patrons.^[26][27] He has also been involved with Fight for Life and Cancer Research UK.^[28][29]

In October 2002, Lineker backed a £5 million bid to rescue his former club Leicester City which recently had gone into administration, describing his involvement as charity rather than an ego trip.^[30] He said that he would invest a six-figure sum and other members of his consortium would invest a similar amount.^[31] Lineker met the fans' group to persuade them to try and raise money to rescue his former club. Another six-figure sum donor was Emile Heskey, who had not only followed in Lineker's footsteps by going to the same school as him, but also went on to play for Leicester City and England. The club was saved from liquidation. Lineker is now honorary vice-president of Leicester City, along with former players Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton.

Lineker married Danielle Bux on 2 September 2009, in Italy. The ceremony was attended by friends and family. They went on to win £30,000 for charity in ITV's gameshow Mr. and Mrs.

Career statistics[link]

^[32]

International goals[link]

Scores and results list England's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition	Scored
1	26 March 1985	Wembley Stadium	Republic of Ireland	2–1	Friendly	1
2, 3	16 June 1985	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	United States	5–0	Friendly	2
4, 5, 6	16 October 1985	Wembley Stadium	Turkey	5–0	1986 World Cup qualifier	3
7, 8, 9	11 June 1986	Estadio Tecnológico, Monterrey	Poland	3–0	1986 World Cup	3
10, 11	18 June 1986	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City	Paraguay	3–0	1986 World Cup	2
12	22 June 1986	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City	Argentina	1–2	1986 World Cup	1
13, 14	15 October 1986	Wembley Stadium	Northern Ireland	3–0	Euro 1988 qualifier	2
15, 16, 17, 18	18 February 1987	Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid	Spain	4–2	Friendly	4
19	19 May 1987	Wembley Stadium	Brazil	1–1	Friendly (Rous Cup)	1
20	9 September 1987	Rheinstadion, Düsseldorf	West Germany	1–3	Friendly	1
21, 23	14 October 1987	Wembley Stadium	Turkey	8–0	Euro 1988 qualifier	3
24	24 May 1988	Wembley Stadium	Colombia	1–1	Friendly (Rous Cup)	1
25	23 March 1988	Wembley Stadium	Netherlands	2–2	Friendly	1
26	28 May 1988	Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, Lausanne	Switzerland	1–0	Friendly	1
27	26 April 1989	Wembley Stadium	Albania	5–0	1990 World Cup qualifier	1
28	3 June 1989	Wembley Stadium	Poland	3–0	1990 World Cup qualifier	1
29	7 July 1989	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen	Denmark	1–1	Friendly	1
30	28 March 1990	Wembley Stadium	Brazil	1–0	Friendly	1
31	15 May 1990	Wembley Stadium	Denmark	1–0	Friendly	1
32	11 June 1990	Stadio Sant'Elia, Cagliari	Republic of Ireland	1–1	1990 World Cup	1
33, 34	1 July 1990	Stadio San Paolo, Naples	Cameroon	3–2	1990 World Cup	2
35	4 July 1990	Stadio delle Alpi, Turin	West Germany	1 – 1p	1990 World Cup	1
36	22 September 1990	Wembley Stadium	Hungary	1–0	Friendly	1
37	17 October 1990	Wembley Stadium	Poland	2–0	Euro 1992 qualifier	1
38, 39	6 February 1991	Wembley Stadium	Cameroon	2–0	Friendly	2
40	26 July 1991	Wembley Stadium	Argentina	2–2	Friendly (England Challenge Cup)	1
41	3 June 1991	Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland	New Zealand	1–0	Friendly	1
42, 43, 44, 45	12 June 1991	Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	4–2	Friendly	4
46	13 November 1991	Stadion Miejski, Poznań	Poland	1–1	Euro 1992 qualifier	1
47	19 February 1992	Wembley Stadium	France	2–0	Friendly	1
48	29 April 1992	Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow	CIS	2–2	Friendly	1

Honours[link]

Club[link]

Leicester City

• Football League Second Division: 1980

Everton

• FA Charity Shield: 1985

Barcelona

• Copa del Rey: 1988
• European Cup Winners' Cup: 1989

Tottenham Hotspur

• FA Cup: 1991

International[link]

England

• Rous Cup: 1986, 1988, 1989
• England Challenge Cup: 1991

Individual[link]

• English League Top Scorer: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1989–90
• English Second Division Top Scorer: 1982-83^[33]
• FIFA World Cup Golden Shoe: 1986
• PFA Players' Player of the Year: 1985–86
• FWA Footballer of the Year: 1985–86, 1991–92

References[link]

Gary Lineker: Strikingly Different, Colin Malam, Stanley Paul Publications, London, 1993 ISBN 0-09-175424-0

External links[link]

• Gary Lineker photos, biography & stats at sporting-heroes.net
• Gary Lineker career stats at Soccerbase
• English Football Hall of Fame Profile
• Gary Lineker's Football Career Home and Abroad^{[dead link]}
• Gary Lineker at the Internet Movie Database

England squads v t e England squad – 1986 FIFA World Cup 1 Shilton 2 Gary Stevens 3 Sansom 4 Hoddle 5 Martin 6 Butcher 7 Bryan Robson (c) 8 Wilkins 9 Hateley 10 Lineker 11 Waddle 12 Anderson 13 Woods 14 Fenwick 15 Gary A. Stevens 16 Reid 17 Steven 18 Hodge 19 Barnes 20 Beardsley 21 Dixon 22 Bailey Coach: Bobby Robson v t e England squad – UEFA Euro 1988 1 Shilton 2 Stevens 3 Sansom 4 Webb 5 Watson 6 Adams 7 Bryan Robson (c) 8 Steven 9 Beardsley 10 Lineker 11 Barnes 12 Waddle 13 Woods 14 Anderson 15 McMahon 16 Reid 17 Hoddle 18 Hateley 19 Wright 20 Dorigo Coach: Bobby Robson v t e England squad – 1990 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place 1 Shilton 2 Stevens 3 Pearce 4 Webb 5 Walker 6 Butcher 7 Bryan Robson (c) 8 Waddle 9 Beardsley 10 Lineker 11 Barnes 12 Parker 13 Woods 14 Wright 15 Dorigo 16 McMahon 17 Platt 18 Hodge 19 Gascoigne 20 Steven 21 Bull 22 Beasant Coach: Bobby Robson v t e England squad – UEFA Euro 1992 1 Woods 2 Curle 3 Pearce 4 Keown 5 Walker 6 Wright 7 Platt 8 Steven 9 Clough 10 Lineker (c) 11 Sinton 12 Palmer 13 Martyn 14 Dorigo 15 Webb 16 Merson 17 Smith 18 Daley 19 Batty 20 Shearer Coach: Taylor