On This Day – 30th November
Gary Lineker, the former Leicester City, Everton, Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, Grampus Eight, and England striker turned 60 today.
Lineker scored 48 goals in 80 matches, going tantalisingly close to breaking Bobby Charlton’s record of 49. He won the Golden Boot in the 1986 World Cup after scoring
In his club career, Lineker scored 103 goals for Leicester City, 38 for Everton, 52 for Barcelona, and 80 for Tottenham Hotspur. On three occasions he was the top goalscorer in the First Division.
Lineker was the runner-up in the Ballon D’or in 1986 behind the Soviet Igor Belanov. The Leicester-born striker was one of the most prolific goalscorers of his generation.
Two of the most memorable moments that spring to mind from Lineker’s England career shirt were bad ones!
The first was when Paul Gascoigne picked up a yellow card in the 1990 World Cup, meaning that he would miss out on the Final if England got there. (They didn’t but no one knew that at the time, of course!) Lineker went over to check on Gazza and was caught on camera looking over to the bench, shaking his head and pointing to his eye. The gesture was to say that Bobby Robson and his coaching staff should watch Gascoigne as he feared that his team mate might not be in the right mindset thereafter.
The second image that springs to mind is of what turned out to be his last appearance in an England shirt. England were playing the hosts Sweden at the 1992 European Championships in their last group game. Both sides needed a win to go through and in the 62nd minute, manager Graham Taylor decided to substitute Lineker for Alan Smith. The dejection and sadness were there for all to see and when Sweden went on to win the game, Taylor was hounded by the England fans and the media.
In 1994, shortly after returning from Japan, Lineker starred in some adverts for Walkers crisps. The company briefly changed the Salt and Vinegar flavour’s name to ‘Salt and Lineker’ in a marketing campaign. Their later attempt at ‘Cheese and Owen’ after Michael Owen didn’t have the same ring to it though!
As well as doing crisp adverts, Lineker did some punditry for the BBC. He suitably impressed the bigwigs at the Beeb and took over from the great Des Lynam as host of Match of the Day when Lynam retired in 1999.
About Author
1 thought on “On This Day – 30th November”
Comments are closed.