England Legends - Gary Lineker

As a festive treat TheFA.com has a series of seven articles with England Legends, one from each of the match programmes in 2007, today it's Gary Lineker;

Gary Lineker needn’t be so modest. Arguably the most complete striker England has ever produced, he bagged 48 goals in 80 matches for his country, just one off Bobby Charlton’s record (although Charlton took 26 more games to score his tally).

Lineker also managed to produce his finest form on the biggest stage, the World Cup, winning the Golden Boot in Mexico in 1986, and coming within a whisker of firing the Three Lions to their second World Cup Final in 1990. He enjoyed a highly successful club career too, after which he reinvented himself as a first-rate broadcaster and all-round national treasure.

But Gary Lineker is modest. Asked why he achieved so much in the white shirt of England, he simply replies, “I was lucky.” He genuinely believes that for all his ability, things could have panned out completely differently without some fortune.

“In international football, you’ve got to get the breaks at the right time,” he says. “Luck is always a factor. I could have been dropped for the Poland game at the 1986 World Cup. A few players were dropped for that, and it could easily have been me. I might never have played for England again. But I got a reprieve and Iwent on to score that hat-trick. Suddenly I was a contender for the Golden Boot. That’s how quickly things change in football.”

You wouldn’t expect anything else than humility from a man regarded as football’s Mr Nice Guy, but the truth is that Lineker and England were made for each other. From the moment he made his international debut – as a substitute against Scotland in 1984 – he looked the part.

“I came off the bench for that game, which isn’t as nerve-wracking as making a full debut,” he recalls. “You don’t get the same time to think and worry about it. And you can’t do too much damage coming on with just ten minutes to go! I had a couple of chances and didn’t take them, but I’d eased myself in. But I knew I could score goals. My game was all about gambling, finding space. A little bit like Michael Owen, once I’d played in a few games and scored, I could keep my calm and knock them in.”

The case was soon proven. Lineker scored in his next match, his full debut against the Republic of Ireland at Wembley, and from then on there was no stopping him.

After scoring 30 goals for Everton during the 1985-86 season, Lineker went into the World Cup brimming with confidence.

“Any goalscorer will tell you that they always think about being top scorer in any competition they go into,” he says.

“So it was the same approaching the World Cup, but it was always going to be a long shot. And after the first two games, losing to Portugal and drawing with Morocco, I was more concerned about keeping my place in the side. But all of a sudden it was Poland and I had a hat-trick. After I got that, I knew I had a chance at the Golden Boot.”

Lineker’s actual boots, meanwhile, were in bits: he was still wearing a ‘lucky’ pair that had got him all those goals that season. “They were falling to bits,” he says. “I had to send them off to get fixed, but I’d been extremely prolific in them. Withthree games to go in the league in 1986, I’d forgotten the boots and we lost a game against Oxford United. It ended up costing us the title, so I was always a bit superstitious. I wore them for the whole World Cup.”

England were eventually bundled out of the tournament by Diego Maradona’s Hand of God, but the summer of ‘86 proved to be the making of Lineker. “It was a massive boost for my confidence and self-belief, to prove that I could score at the very highest level. Strikers thrive on that. I got the move to Barcelona, and things went from there. My dad was also happy with me – he’d put a few quid on me at 16-1 to be Golden Boot!”

While Lineker kept notching for England during the four years until the next World Cup, including an incredible four-goal haul during the 4-2 mauling of Spain in Madrid in 1987, his relationship with the European Championship was never as happy as with the World Cup.

“It’s weird, but we’ve never done as well in the Euros as we do in World Cups,” says Lineker. “I’m not sure why that is, although the World Cup does tend to have weaker teams in it. Every team in the Euros is strong. But we had a really good side for Germany ‘88. The Irish were a bit lucky against us, then we met a great Dutch team who went on to win the thing. We played OK, but we lost, and were out after two games.”

Two years later in Italy, however, things would come together spectacularly well. “1990 was a really good side,” says Lineker. “I think outside of 1966, it was probably the best England have had. We had a strong defence, a great goalkeeper and a lot of creativity in midfield and wide areas, and could score goals as well. It was very balanced.”

So what was England’s secret formula in 1990, given the theory that great players don’t always make a great team?

“To be honest, I think great players do make a great team,” says Lineker. “Over half of that side were world-class players. I think you need that to have a real chance in the World Cup. We had a good blend of players, an excellent manager, we were well organised and had a lot of self-belief. Also, it was a side that could dig deep when it mattered. There’s a lot of fear in football, and that side didn’t have much fear, which is rare.”

The tournament was a tonic for English football, under fire following the Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies. It made people enjoy it again, and attracted a whole new audience. And when Gazza burst into tears after receiving the yellow card against West Germany that would have prevented him from playing in the Final, it provided one of the defining images of English sport.

“People still ask me about what I was saying during the Gazza moment more than anything else, even my favourite flavour of crisps!” laughs Lineker. “Obviously Gazza was blubbing, and Bobby was just telling me keep an eye on him. I was just repeating that back. Gazza rallied and was great in extra time, but we were unlucky.

“The Germans were really strong and everyone thought, they were a certainty to win the World Cup that year – which they went on to do. They steamrollered lots of sides, but we gave as good as we got and really could have won that match.”

Would England have beaten Argentina in the Final – or is it a “what if” question that Lineker can’t bear to think about?

“I think we’d have won,” he replies. “They’d pretty much shot it, hadn’t they? They had players missing, Diego Maradona was having problems. We’ll never know, but we’d have been favourites. I certainly thought so, because I thought we’d win every game. But I think the Semi with Germany was always likely to produce the winner.”

The players were unaware of the World Cup mania unfolding back home. “People would tell you on the phone, but really you’re enveloped in a blanket of security,” he says. “You’re cocooned. We didn’t even bother with the papers much. The madness only shows itself when you get back.”

Lineker, who had scored four goals, found himself a national hero upon his return. But his international career had peaked. He continued to score during friendlies and qualifiers, but he missed the chance of equalling Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of 49 goals for England when he missed a penalty against Brazil in 1992, before heading out to Sweden for a disappointing European Championship.

“In 1992 we weren’t a very good side,” Lineker recalls. “Chris Waddle and Peter Beardsley were eased out, we lost Bryan Robson. Gazza was injured, John Barnes was injured – all of a sudden we had no creativity.”

Lineker was substituted in England’s final group match, denying him the chance to finally break Charlton’s record, but he’s not bitter over the incident. “If someone had told me at the start of my career that I would have been one off the record, I’d have thought they were stark raving mad,” he says. “I’m happy with how I did.”

The record will fall soon, thinks Lineker, thanks to the modern player whose game most resembles his own, Michael Owen. “The way he moves and the way he finishes are extremely similar to me,” he says. “As long as Michael stays fit, he will beat the record. Time is on his side.”

Lineker is dismissive of the critics who claim that Owen is already past his best. “We’re quick to knock in this country,” says Lineker. “People say he’s lost it, or he’s lost a yard, and it’s all nonsense. They don’t understand how difficult it is to be a really top class player at this level, so when you’ve got someone like that, you should stick with them.

“They used to say similar things about me that they say about Michael now – that he does nothing apart from score goals. They forget about the 155 runs you make during the game that nobody notices. I hope Michael smashes the record. It’ll stop me feeling so bad about missing that penalty…”