Gary Lineker has achieved many things during his life in football – before becoming a successful television presenter, he was an England hero at two World Cups.
Lineker is stepping down as host of Match of the Day next month after 26 years, and spoke to FourFourTwo magazine to mark the moment.
On television, he learned from mentor Des Lynam, before succeeding the legend after Lynam moved to ITV in 1999.
Gary Lineker’s Italia 90 agony
Before that, Lineker was one of the world’s finest strikers, netting more than 300 goals for club and country during a stellar career.
After making his name at boyhood club Leicester City, Lineker moved to Everton in 1985, before winning the golden boot at the 1986 World Cup, scoring six times to help England recover from a poor start and reach the quarter-finals.
After moving to Barcelona and then Tottenham Hotspur, Lineker lined up for the Three Lions once more at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
He found the net just nine minutes into England’s opening game of the tournament against the Republic of Ireland, then converted two penalties as Bobby Robson’s side defeated Cameroon in the quarter-finals.
It put the national team into the semi-finals of a World Cup for the first time since 1966, and Lineker then bagged the equaliser against West Germany to take the last-four clash to a penalty shoot-out.
The forward scored his spot-kick, but Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle both missed as England suffered an agonising defeat, allowing the Germans to progress to the final, where they beat Argentina.
Lineker’s tally of 10 World Cup goals remains a record for an Englishman, but he still regards that West Germany defeat as the biggest blow of his career.
“That was the biggest disappointment,” he told FFT.
“You were so close, you almost had your hands on the trophy, because I think we would have had a real chance in the final, we were a really good side
“But we’ll never know. It’s the one thing I often look back on and think, ‘If only’, because winning a World Cup is football immortality. It’s forever.”
