For the younger generation of British football fans, Gary Lineker is a broadcaster. As host
of the BBC's weekly flagship Saturday night highlights show "Match of the Day", and a
number of other BBC sporting institutions, Lineker's television career has now been long
and very successful.
But before all that, he was a striker.
And not just any striker, but one Sir Bobby Charlton described as "among the greatest
finishers football has ever seen." By the end of his career, Lineker was just one goal
shy of Charlton’s all-time England goalscoring record, which was eventually broken by Wayne
Rooney.
He played for Leicester City, then Everton – who were one of the powerhouses of English
football in the 1990s – before earning a move to Barcelona, spending several fruitful
seasons at Tottenham Hotspur and ending his career at Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan.
It was a remarkable playing career. When Leicester City won the league in 2016, Lineker honoured
a bet to present Match of the Day in his underwear, a bet he had felt comfortable making given
how unlikely the feat was. His deep attachment to the Foxes meant he enjoyed their achievement
more than most.
He was born and brought up in the town and joined the club in 1977 after leaving school.
A year later he was in the first team, as Leicester sought promotion from the old Second
Division.
It took him a while to find his feet. He scored just one goal in seven appearances in his
first season and 3 from 20 in his second, at the end of which Leicester were promoted.
In his first season at the level above, Lineker scored just 2 goals in nine league games,
as the Foxes were quickly relegated.
Then, things started to happen. He became a regular in the side, and started scoring
at a startling rate, combining a lethal instinct close to goal with instinctive, anticipatory
movement in the box.
Seventeen in 39 league games in 1981-82 was followed by a division-best 26 in 40 as Leicester
again made it back to the top flight. This time Lineker was ready for First Division
defenders, scoring 22 goals – and, ultimately, convincing Bobby Robson that he was ready
for international football, winning his first cap at the age of 23, against Scotland in
1984. During 1984-85, his 24 goals saw him finish
the season equal with Chelsea's Kerry Dixon as the league's top scorer. With a World Cup
looming the following summer, Champions Everton came calling and Lineker made the move to
Merseyside for £800,000.
He would spend just one season with the Toffees, who finished runners-up to Liverpool in both
the league and the FA Cup, with Lineker scoring 38 goals in 52 appearances, enough to earn
him both the Football Writers' and PFA player of the year awards.
It would also earn him the attention of Barcelona.
He tried to put the interest to one side, concentrating on England and the 1986 World
Cup, reasoning that if their interest was serious Barcelona would still be keen after
the tournament finished.
That could have been a big gamble, particularly since England and their star striker got off
to an awful start. A 1-0 loss to Portugal was followed by a 0-0 draw with Morocco. Then,
needing a big result in their third group game, Bobby Robson made a decision that would
change the course of Lineker's career.
He brought in the ever-creative Peter Beardsley to play in support of him and the partnership
flourished. A Lineker hat-trick against Poland in the last group game saw England qualify
for the knock-out rounds. Two more followed in the second round, with Beardsley getting
one of his own in a 3-0 win over Paraguay. The new-look attack invigorated the side.
Lineker's goal against Argentina in the next round, the quarter-final, was merely a consolation
though – it was the infamous "the Hand of God" game which saw Diego Maradona score one
of the game's most notorious goals, and also one of its finest, as he first punched the
ball into the net over Peter Shilton's outstretched arms, before then dribbling half the length
of the pitch and cutting through the entire England defence.
It may ultimately be remembered as Maradona’s World Cup, but Lineker outscored him, earning
the Golden Boot after six goals in five appearances.
And Barcelona did, indeed, still want him after the tournament finished.
His time at the Nou Camp started brilliantly, and on January 31st 1987 he wrote himself
a permanent place in Barca folklore with a hat-trick against Real Madrid
As Real Madrid's Jorge Valdano said of Barca's deadly English finisher –
"Lineker would kill them all in the Wild West".
He finished the season with 20 goals in 41 league games. Sadly, Terry
Venables would be sacked as Barcelona’s manager at the end of that first year and
would be replaced by Johan Cruyff, who attempted to transform Lineker into a right-sided winger.
He would leave Barcelona in 1989, moving back to England and to White Hart Lane, where Venables
had taken over at Tottenham.
Lineker would explain the decision in an interview with Mundial Magazine.
“I had no real choice; I had to do it for career reasons because Cruyff came in. I’d
had two good seasons playing up front, and you were only allowed two foreign players
in those days, and I think he wanted his own foreign players, which is understandable.
He tried to mess me about and played me on the wing, so I just had to go."
In his first season back in England, Lineker took his place back at the top of the
goalscoring charts, scoring 24 times for Spurs and re-emphasising his importance to the national
team ahead of the 1990 World Cup.
In Italy, England would go one better than they had in Mexico four years earlier, reaching
the semi-finals and losing only on penalties to eventual winners West Germany. Lineker
had a fine tournament, remembered for his two nerveless penalties against Cameroon and,
famously, his late equaliser against the West Germans in Turin.
At the end of the following season he helped Spurs to an FA Cup, scoring a brace in the
semi-final against Arsenal, two of the 19 goals he scored in all
competitions.
The following season saw him back on top form, scoring 28 league goals, his best since his
30-goal season with Everton in 85/86.
While his domestic career in England finished on a high, his international career did not.
As part of his spectacularly unsuccessful reign in charge, Graham Taylor marginalised
Lineker. With his team stuck at 1-1 and needing a
goal, with Lineker just one short of Sir Bobby Charlton's then-record, Taylor took his striker
off in the 61stminute of the European Championship group game with Sweden.
England would lose 2-1, suffer elimination from the tournament, and Lineker would never
play for his country again. It was an inglorious end to an outstanding career.
In his final club move, he surprised the footballing world, heading off to Japan to join Nagoya
Grampus Eight to be a superstar player in the brand-new J League.
He was to be the face of the new division, to be heavily merchandised, and to become
a household name in Japan. Injuries prevented him making a major on-pitch impact, though,
and after two season he retired from playing, beginning what would become a highly successful
second Act in the media.
Today, Lineker is a figure beyond football. A seasoned presenter, the face of the BBC
and, on social media, an increasingly bold political voice,, but he should always be
remembered as the superb player he was too. A sniper, a predator, and one of the finest
penalty box forwards of his time.