Gary Lineker
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gary Winston Lineker OBE | ||
| Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Striker | ||
Gary Winston Lineker OBE (born 30 November 1960) is a retired English international football striker and is currently a sports broadcaster for the BBC and Eredivisie Live. He is currently England's top scorer in the World Cup, with 10 goals.
Lineker began his football career at Leicester City and became known as a prolific goalscorer, finishing as the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984-85 and earning his first England cap. He moved to Everton where he remained a clinical finisher, scoring 38 goals in 52 games. His first team honours came at FC 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. 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 Shoe, the only time an Englishman has achieved this feat. During his professional career, Lineker is noted for never having been cautioned or sent off by a referee.
After his retirement from football he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. He moved in to broadcasting, working at the BBC, presenting Match of the Day among other programmes. 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 currently engaged to Danielle Bux.
Early life
Lineker's father was a market trader in Leicester and he grew up with his family in the city, playing football with his brother Wayne.[1] Lineker first attended Linden Primary School in Evington and then went to the City of Leicester Boys' School (later The City of Leicester School) on Downing Drive in Evington. He joined Leicester City FC in 1977.
Club career
Leicester City (1977-1985)
Lineker began his career at his home town club of Leicester City when he left school in 1977. Lineker began scoring prolifically in the early 1980s, helping Leicester win promotion to the First Division in 1980 and again in 1983. During his time at Filbert Street he finished twice amongst the top flight's leading scorers and winning his first England call up. He helped Leicester win promotion to the top flight in 1983 and was the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984-85 (tied on 24 goals with Kerry Dixon). By this stage, however, he was attracting the attention of bigger clubs, and a move from Filbert Street was looking certain.
Everton (1985-1986)
In the 1985 close season, Lineker was sold to defending league champions Everton for £800,000, and scored 38 goals in 52 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. Liverpool (double winners) had also pipped Everton to the title by just two points.
Barcelona (1986-1989)
After a strong showing at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Barcelona signed Lineker for £2,200,000. Barcelona were being managed by former QPR boss Terry Venables, who had also brought in Manchester United and Wales striker Mark Hughes.
Lineker was one of a string of British footballers to move to the continent in the mid 1980s, prompted by the prospect of higher wages as well as the fact that all English clubs were banned from European competitions from 1985 to 1990 due to the Heysel disaster.
His Golden Shoe-winning performance at the finals led to much anticipation of success at the Nou Camp, and he didn't 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.[2] Barcelona went on to win the Copa del Rey in 1988 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1989. However, Barcelona coach Johan Cruijff decided to play Lineker on the right of the midfield and he eventually lost his place on the first team.
Tottenham Hotspur (1989-1992)
Alex Ferguson of Manchester United 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 winning the FA Cup at White Hart Lane. He finished as top scorer in the First Division in the 1989–90 season, scoring 24 goals. He was in the Tottenham side that won the FA Cup in 1991 and 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 (1992-1994)
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.
During an illustrious career, he had been PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1986 and placed third in voting for the inaugural FIFA World Player of the Year in 1990 - the award ultimately went to Germany's Lothar Matthäus. Despite his long career, Lineker was never cautioned by a referee for foul play (never once receiving a yellow or red card) as a result of this accomplishment he was honoured in 1990 with the FIFA Fair Play Award.
Club career statistics
Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1978-79||rowspan="7"|Leicester City||rowspan="2"|Second Division||7||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||7||1 |- |1979-80||19||3||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||20||3 |- |1980-81||First Division||9||2||1||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||10||3 |- |1981-82||rowspan="2"|Second Division||39||17||5||2||3||0||colspan="2"|-||47||19 |- |1982-83||40||26||1||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||43||26 |- |1983-84||rowspan="2"|First Division||39||22||1||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||41||22 |- |1984-85||41||24||4||3||3||2||colspan="2"|-||48||29 |- |1985-86||Everton||First Division||41||30||6||5||5||3||colspan="2"|-||52||38 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1986-87||rowspan="3"|Barcelona||rowspan="3"|La Liga||41||21||1||1||colspan="2"|-||8||0||50||22 |- |1987-88||36||16||5||2||colspan="2"|-||9||2||50||20 |- |1988-89||26||6||4||1||colspan="2"|-||8||4||38||11 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1989-90||rowspan="3"|Tottenham Hotspur||rowspan="3"|First Division||38||24||1||0||6||2||colspan="2"|-||45||26 |- |1990-91||32||15||6||3||5||1||colspan="2"|-||43||19 |- |1991-92||35||28||2||0||5||5||8||2||50||35 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1993||rowspan="2"|Nagoya Grampus Eight||rowspan="2"|J. League||6||3||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||6||3 |- |1994||17||6||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||17||6 Template:Football player statistics 3340||192||28||14||30||13||8||2||406||221 Template:Football player statistics 4103||43||10||4||colspan="2"|-||25||6||138||53 Template:Football player statistics 423||9||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||23||9 Template:Football player statistics 5466||244||38||18||30||13||33||8||567||283 |}
International career
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 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 infamous "Hand of God" handball) and England were out of the competition.
In 1988, Lineker played in the European Football Championship, but failed to score as England lost all three Group games. It was later established that he had been suffering from hepatitis.[3][4]
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 faking two German defenders, but the West Germans triumphed in the penalty shoot-out and went on to win the trophy.
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 92, he was controversially 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. He had earlier missed a penalty that would have brought him level, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil. He was visibily upset at the decision, not looking at Taylor as he took the bench.
He scored four goals in an England match on two occasions.[5]
International goals
- Scores and results list England's goal tally first.
Honours
- Fifa World Cup - Golden Shoe: 1986 (Mexico)
- Copa del Rey: 1988
- UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1989
- FA Cup: 1991; Runner-up 1986
- First Division (now Premier League): Runner-up 1986
- English league top scorer: 1985, 1986, 1990
Media career
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,[1] 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.[6]
He presented a six-part TV Series for the BBC in 1998 (directed by Lloyd Stanton) called "Golden Boots"[7], with other football celebrities. It was an extensive history of the World Cup focusing on the 'Golden Boots' (top scorers).
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 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.
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.[8]
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.
Walkers advertisements
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 & vinegar crisps after Lineker in the late 1990s - they were labelled 'Salt-n-Lineker. This was also due to the fact that his favourite flavour crisps are Salt and Vinegar.[9]
Videogames
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.
Personal life
Lineker is a freeman of the City of Leicester (which entitles him to graze his sheep - should he have any - on Town Hall Square) 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.[10] 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 in 1986, but they divorced in August 2006. They announced their split in April 2006 but stated that the situation was amicable.[11] 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;[1] Gary 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 Fight for Life and Cancer Research UK.[12][13]
In October 2002, Lineker announced a £5 million rescue plan for cash-strapped club Leicester City, describing his involvement as charity rather than an ego trip. He said that he would invest a six-figure sum and other members of his consortium would invest a similar amount.[14] 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. Lineker is now honorary vice-president of Leicester City, along with Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton, and the north stand of the club's Walkers Stadium is named in his honour.
He is currently the partner of Danielle Bux (born c. 1979), a mother of one.[15] He is fluent in both Spanish and Japanese languages,[16] an ability which helped him settle when he was playing abroad.
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Ferguson, Euan (2007-04-08). "He's still the golden shot". The Observer. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Gary Lineker". Talk Football. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- ^ C Malam, p100
- ^ The first was against Spain 18 February 1987 and the second time against Malaysia 12 June 1991
- ^ Malam, p140&141
- ^ Church Times - Simon Parke: A sporting chance for unity
- ^ "Golden Boots" (1998)
- ^ "Lineker and Kewell settle libel case out of court". The Guardian. 2006-07-04. Retrieved 2006-11-13.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Lineker forced to take crisp break Daily Mail
- ^ "The story behind the Paraguayan Elbows CC". Retrieved 2006-11-13.
- ^ "Gary Lineker and wife to separate". BBC News. 2006-04-30. Retrieved 2006-11-13.
- ^ Fight for Life Appeal 2008
- ^ "Gary Lineker to face questioning for Cancer Research UK charity fundraiser", Charities Aid Foundation, 2008-03-03. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
- ^ Lineker unveils Leicester rescue bid BBC Sport October 2002
- ^ Gary Lineker | Host on beach stroll with curvy girlfriend Danielle Bux | The Sun |Showbiz|Bizarre
- ^ "Celebrity linguists". National Centre for Languages. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
References
Gary Lineker: Strikingly Different, Colin Malam, Stanley Paul Publications, London, 1993 ISBN 0-09-175424-0
External links
- Gary Lineker at Soccerbase
- English Football Hall of Fame Profile
- Gary Lineker's Football Career Home and Abroad
- Gary Lineker at IMDb
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