Lineker, Gary

Gary Lineker began his playing career at the modest club Leicester City . For 6 seasons that Lineker spent as part of Leicester, he scored 95 goals against opponents. In 1984, England coach Sir Bobby Robson invited him to join the national team. Robson was looking for a replacement for Kevin Keegan and found her in the face of Lineker. Lineker played his first match against Scotland . As part of Leicester, Gary Lineker became the top scorer in the First Division.

In the summer of 1985, Gary Lineker moved to Everton , which at that time was a very strong club. Everton was recognized as the strongest team in the world according to FIFA in 1985, winning the Cup Winners Cup . As in Leicester, in Everton, Lineker again became the top scorer of the First Division.

Many experts claim that the team coached by Sir Bobby Robson from 1984 to 1990 was one of the most successful and powerful after the triumph in 1966. Robson had the legends of those years: Brian Robson , Stuart Pearce , Mark Hayley , Mark Wright , Gary Stevens , Peter Shilton , Peter Beardsley , John Barnes , Paul Gascoigne , Chris Waddle , David Platt and many others. At the World Cup in Mexico, Robson took all the best. England sought to prove to the world that after the tragedy on Eisel, British football was alive. In training, Lineker broke his wrist. Robson faced a difficult task. Lineker’s character was iron, he refused to watch the national team matches from the bench or from the stands. The leadership of the English Football Federation appealed to the leadership of FIFA with a request to allow Gary Lineker to play with a blindfold. Matches in Mexico, where Lineker played with a bandage on his hand, went around the world. At the championship, the team began not very successfully. The first rivals were strong Portuguese , which included Paulo Futre , Pasecu and goalkeeper Manuel Bento , who made up the backbone of the Porto football club, which won the European Cup in 1987. The Portuguese won 1-0. The next match is with Morocco ; Robson wards spent the entire match in the attack, but could not win. Having one draw and one tournament point in the column, the England team could count on reaching the next round only if they defeated the Poles . Lineker scored a hat-trick during the first half. In the next round, Paraguay was an opponent - Lineker scored 2 goals. This was followed by a well-known match against the Argentine national team led by the legendary Diego Maradona . The goal, later called the hand of God , led the English into a stupor, but the passage of Maradona, who defeated the entire defense of the England team, was a shock for the English. Lineker answered one goal, but the British simply did not have enough. At the 1986 World Cup, Gary Lineker with 6 goals became the tournament's top scorer. The weekly Soccer Hockey weekly published in the USSR widely introduced Gary Lineker to Soviet fans. “Soviet Sport” published a large interview with Lineker in the “Sports Stars Visiting Soviet Sport” section. In a dispute over the prize for the best football player in Europe, Gary Lineker lost to Igor Belanov .

Lineker moved to Barcelona for $ 4 million. The choice in favor of the Catalan club was due to the fact that the Englishman Terry Venables was at the helm of the Spanish club. To help Gary in the attack, Mark Hughes was bought. Barcelona were opposed by Real Madrid , which included a trio of Hugo Sanchez , Emilio Butrageno and Michel . In the season 1987/88, “Barcelona” was able to win only the Cup of Spain , which did not suit the owners of the club. The ex-Barcelona star Johan Cruyff was invited to the post of coach, who made it clear to everyone that he would not use the British model of Venables. In addition, Lineker suffered a knee injury and did not fully recover for the 1988 European Championship , where England, except for defeats, did not remember anything and looked like a pale shadow of the 1986 national team. In the composition of the Catalans, Lineker won the Cup Winners' Cup : in the final, the Italian Sampdoria was defeated, in which two young legends shone - Roberto Mancini and Gianluca Vialli .

Lineker came to Italy, already being part of the Tottenham Hotspur . Young Paul Gascoigne arrived with him. Sir Bobby Robson presented a well-trained team to the Italians. Having fallen into the same group with Egypt , Ireland and Holland at the qualifying stage, the British managed to get out with two draws and one victory in their luggage. Lineker scored one goal - against the national team of Ireland. But, from the top scorer of the Mexican championship they expected more. In a match with Belgium in the last minute of extra time, David Platt scored. And in the quarterfinals, the British opposed the opening team of the 1990 World Cup - Cameroon , led by coach Valery Nepomnyashchy . The British led 1-0, conceded 1-2, then Lineker twice - both times from the penalty spot - brought the English to Franz Beckenbauer's wards. The main time of the match against the German national team is 1-1: the goal of Lineker and the ridiculous rebound of Paul Parker led the match to a penalty shootout won by the Germans. In one interview, Sir Bobby Robson will say:

We, the British, do not beat the penalty after the game because we don’t know how, we just used to play in England until the end, until the winner is determined after the end of the game, and not as a result of the lottery

The British returned from Italy in 4, it was a success.

Before the championship in Italy, Gary moved to the Spurs camp. In their composition, he again became the top scorer of the championship, but the club, led by Venables, could only win the FA Cup . Lineker suffered from injuries, to this was added a serious illness of his son. He will go to Sweden at the 1992 European Championship as a captain. Group stage matches with Denmark and France ended in zero draws. However, the team of “three lions” lost to the hosts of the championship, the Swedes - 1: 2. The only English goal at that championship was scored after an accurate pass from the right flank of Lineker. Gary Lineker completed his career in Japan, where he moved after the 1992 European Championships , having previously announced the cessation of appearances for the national team. In the club " Nagoya Grampus Eyte " Lineker spent 2 years, but injuries did not allow him to play at full strength. Returning to his homeland in 1994, the famous football player received the Order of the British Empire from the hands of the Queen.

Team

  Everton

• Silver medalist of the championship of England: 1986

  Barcelona

• Spanish Cup Winner: 1988
• Cup Winners Cup: 1989

  Tottenham Hotspur

• FA Cup Winner : 1991

Personal

• England top scorer: 1985, 1986, 1990
• Football Player of the Year according to the Association of Football Journalists : 1986, 1992
• World Cup Top Scorer: 1986
• Player of the Year according to PFA players : 1986
• Record holder of the England national team in the number of goals at the world championships : 10 goals
• Included in the FIFA 100 list
• Included in the list of the greatest football players of the XX century according to World Soccer

For more than 600 games, I have never received either a yellow or a red card ^[1] . Lineker himself associates his achievement with the fact that before the formation of the English Premier League, the game was fiercer, and cards were presented for violations that had previously been seen through the fingers.

Today it is impossible to play without receiving a card from time to time ^[2] .

• Profile in the English Football Hall of Fame