Gary Lineker

Gary Winston Lineker, OBE ( born November 30, 1960 in Leicester ) is a former English footballer.

The legendary striker was in the 1980s, the best striker in England and is with ten goals scorer of his country at the World Championships. At club level he played for, inter alia Leicester City, Everton, FC Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur. During his long career he never received a yellow or red card.

Today Lineker works as a football commentator for the BBC and Al Jazeera Sports.

Youth

Gary Lineker was born as the son of the greengrocer Barry Lineker and his wife in Leicester, England. Even as a little boy Lineker was an avid soccer player, who spent nearly every free minute with his brother while playing in the streets of his hometown. After leaving school, the 16 -year-old talent moved to Leicester City.

Club career

After two years in the youth department of the " Foxes " Lineker managed to 1978/79 season the leap into the professional squad. Leicester was playing in the second division ( Second Division ), in the Lineker made ​​his first footballing steps. In the following three years, he never got beyond the status of a supplementary player. After a year in the First Division (1980 /81) Lineker with Leicester rose again, but he now made ​​the big breakthrough with 17 goals this season. In the following season, Lineker became the audience favorite at the Filbert Street and shot his club in 1983 with 26 goals back in the top flight. There he continued to achieve goals and was involved in establishing the team in the league. 1984/85 met Lineker 24 times and was together with Kerry Dixon scorer.

For around £ 800,000 transfer fee Lineker left in the summer of 1985 and moved to Leicester reigning champions Everton. There he played a great season and was again top scorer with 30 goals. Everton could not defend the title yet and was behind local rivals Liverpool runner-up. Also in the final of the FA Cup had to get the " Reds " admit defeat.

After this outstanding year with Everton and his performances at the World Cup 1986 in Mexico, the Spanish tradition FC Barcelona Lineker committed peel for about 2.8 million pounds. The Catalans were trained by Lineker's compatriot Terry Venables, who knew about the qualities of the agile striker. Lineker reach 20 goals in his first season, where he managed a hat-trick in a 3-2 victory over arch-rivals Real Madrid. With Barça he won the 1988 Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup ) and the 1989 European Cup Winners' Cup. When Johan Cruyff in 1988 as coach took over, he was used to the unfamiliar for him right winger and later lost his place. After three years in Barcelona, ​​he explained his departure from the Camp Nou in 1989 and returned to England.

In England, Lineker was signed to Tottenham Hotspur a three-year contract because he could again play under Terry Venables. In the North Londoners he found old strength back and was in 1989/90 with 24 goals immediately scorer. With the " Spurs " he defeated in 1991 in the final of the FA Cup Nottingham Forest 2-1 and thus won his first title in England. In his final season in 1991/92 Lineker saved 28 Hits Tottenham from relegation. His last game he played on 2 May 1992 against Manchester United and scored the consolation goal in the 1-3 defeat.

In the summer of 1992, Lineker took on a financially lucrative offer from Japan and even played two years for Nagoya Grampus Eight. His time in Asia, however, was marked by injuries, so he completed only 23 games. In the fall of 1994, Gary Lineker ended his career with 33 years.

Lineker embodied a typical penalty box striker, as he met mostly from close range. His game was not spectacular, but he counted due to its Torriechers and his chance of recovery to the best strikers in England. During his entire professional career, he was never booked or even sent off, which is why he is still referred to as the epitome of "fair play".

National

1984 Lineker played his first international match for England in a game against Scotland. For the next eight years Lineker was an important component of the "Three Lions. "

1986 belonged Lineker in the squad for the World Cup in Mexico. The tournament began auspiciously neither for nor Lineker for England because you lost 0:1 against Portugal and against Morocco played only 0:0. Their criticism was Lineker, who was mocked by the tabloids as a " sports car idle ". Only in the crucial match against Poland, England snatched up and Lineker led his team with a hat-trick in a 3-0 victory, thereby qualifying for the knockout stages. Coach Bobby Robson had exchanged Lineker strike partner and brought with Peter Beardsley a new striker that harmonized well with Lineker. In the 3-0 win over Paraguay in the second round Lineker was with two hits again the match winner his team. But in the quarterfinals to the Argentines Diego Maradona were too strong, and England had to return home after the 1-2 defeat. Lineker had scored the consolation goal shortly before the end of his sixth Turniertor and was the first Englishman ever World Cup scorer. He was elected to the World Cup All- Star team and finished in the election to the European Footballer of the Year behind Igor Belanow second place.

1988 England played a disappointing European Championship. It lost all three group games, Lineker remained without a goal. Later it turned out that Lineker was ill during the tournament to hepatitis.

His second World Cup played Lineker in Italy in 1990. In the first round he scored a goal against Ireland (1-1), but he broke a rib and completed the rest of the tournament in great pain. In the quarterfinals, Lineker scored against Cameroon twice from the penalty spot. His goal for the 3-2 win aet in the 105th minute undertook the collection of England to the World Cup semifinals. There, they met their old rivals Germany. This saved his equalizer at 1-1 just before the end, the first Englishman in the extension. Finally, England in the penalty shootout had to admit defeat. After losing to Italy in the match for third place England had achieved his best finish since winning the title in 1966.

His last major tournament was to be the European Championships in Sweden in 1992. But the Englishman left without a win in the group phase. His last game he played here on 17 June 1992 against Sweden when he was substituted after 65 minutes. Lineker was visibly disappointed at his departure and praised coach Graham Taylor not look as he walked to the bank. After 80 caps and 48 goals, he finished his career in the jersey of the national team. He is perpetually on the ranking of the top scorer of the English national team to second place behind Bobby Charlton (49 goals).

Achievements

Personal Awards

  • England's Footballer of the Year: 1986, 1992
  • European Footballer of the Year: Second 1986
  • English scorer: 1985 ( 24 goals ), 1986 ( 30 goals ), 1990 (24 goals)
  • World Cup top scorer in 1986 ( six goals)
  • FIFA Fair Play Award: 1990 (15 years without a yellow or red card )
  • Since 2003 member of the English Football Hall of Fame
  • In 2004, he was informed by Pelé on the list of 125 greatest living footballers (FIFA 100).
  • 2009 chose the fans of Leicester City him in a poll by Sky Sports for the best players in the club 's history. He received 37 percent of the vote, more than twice as many as second-placed Gordon Banks.

Title

  • Copa del Rey: 1988
  • European Cup Winners' Cup: 1989
  • World Cup 1990 Fourth
  • FA Cup: 1991

TV commentator

1994 Gary Lineker began his career in television, first as an expert. He was the frontman of Match of the Day on the BBC in 1999. Together with ex- striker Alan Shearer and ex- Liverpool player Alan Hansen, he summarizes the matchday of the Premier League this mission.

Lineker became famous primarily for the Facilitation of a program in April 2010, the British island was cut off by an ash cloud from Iceland on air travel.; Lineker was staying during a short break in Tenerife. Through a 24 -hour trip he could in time appear to view: By plane he flew to Madrid, and from there he went by car to Paris and got into the Euro Star Express to finally arrive less than two hours before the broadcast started in London. Lineker therefore analyzed in this mission games he previously could not see.

Lineker is one of the highest paid British TV stars and is the highest paid at the BBC. For his Match of the Day presentation he conceded 2 million pounds per year.

Others

1987-1989 Gary Lineker various computer games were released especially for the C64.

One of his four sons, Tobias, was committed at the age of just 11 years from Chelsea in 2007.

Lineker is a very active user of the short message service Twitter, where it has more than 1.9 million followers (as of December 2013). In January 2013 he announced that Twitter occupying too much space in his life and he wanted to rest his or her account. A few days later he revised his statement and returned to Twitter.

Social Commitment

Lineker is involved as an ambassador for Show Racism the Red Card.

Quotes

Lineker is known for the following statement:

"Football is a simple game: 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes, and always win in the end the Germans. "

In his BBC football show Match of the Day is reminiscent of Diego Maradona Lineker FIFA World Cup goal of the century, that this achieved at the 1986 World Cup quarter-final match Argentina against England, with the words:

"It was probably the one and only time in my whole career did I felt like applauding the opposition scoring a goal. "

" It was probably the only time in my career that I wanted to applaud the opposing team a goal. "

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