Gary Lineker
Gary Lineker
Gary Winston Lineker, OBEis a retired English footballer and current sports broadcaster. He holds England's record for goals in FIFA World Cup finals, with 10 scored. Lineker's media career began with the BBC, where he has presented the flagship programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s. He has also worked for Al Jazeera Sports, Eredivisie Live, NBC Sports Network and currently hosts BT Sport's coverage of the UEFA Champions League...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionSoccer Player
Date of Birth30 November 1960
CityLeicester, England
Fella’s a genius. Best ever by a distance in my life time. Never really saw Pele… Souness, Gullit, Venables and now Rooney agree Messi is the best they have seen. He plays a game with which we are not familiar.
Footballers are more likely to work better if they get a pat on their back from the boss. A knife in the back is never the answer.
I was only interested in scoring goals. I wasn't interested in anything else.
The whole kiss-and-tell thing is a negative approach that often happens in a World Cup. We will see negative stories about the players and it can affect their confidence and the overall performance of the national team on the pitch, let alone the bid to actually stage the competition.
When you're winning games, everyone thinks everything the manager says and does is fantastic. Then it goes the other way, and those earlier criticisms of players can backfire.
The World Cup is every four years, so it's going to be a perennial problem.
There's no in between-you're either good or bad. We were in between.
If someone in the crowd spits at you, you have just got to swallow it.
I know I could never be in a pop band. I honestly have an appalling voice.
My wife Danielle and I love travelling, different cultures and good weather.
He's got great credentials by winning the World Cup but he did it with Brazil - my granny could probably have managed Brazil to World Cup success.
My fiancee's brother-in-law was recently paralysed in an accident and it really brought home the fact that thousands of young people live with spinal injuries. It's an issue I wish had more coverage.
I was quite good at football once, although other than that my speciality would be maths. I'm great at sudokus and find all the spin-off games pretty easy too.
I just think to be a manager you've got to live and breathe and have this incredible enthusiasm for football, the whole thing. And while I love the game, and it's been a large part of my life, it's not the only thing in my life.