Gary Lineker

Gary Lineker
OBE

Lineker in 2021
Personal information
Birth name	Gary Winston Lineker[1]
Date of birth	(1960-11-30) 30 November 1960 (age 63)
Place of birth	Leicester, England
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.77 m)
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1976–1978	Leicester City
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1978–1985	Leicester City	194	(95)
1985–1986	Everton	41	(30)
1986–1989	Barcelona	103	(42)
1989–1992	Tottenham Hotspur	105	(67)
1992–1994	Nagoya Grampus	18	(4)
Total		461	(238)
International career
1984	England B	1	(0)
1984–1992	England	80	(48)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gary Winston Lineker OBE (/ˈlɪnəkər/ LIN-ə-kər; born 30 November 1960) is an English sports broadcaster and former professional footballer. Lineker is the only player to have been the top goalscorer in England with three clubs: Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. He also played for Barcelona in Spain, and won 80 caps for England. His media career began with the BBC, where he has presented the flagship football programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s, the longest tenure of any MOTD presenter. Lineker is also the BBC's lead presenter for live football matches, including coverage of international tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup. He has also worked for Al Jazeera Sports, Eredivisie Live, NBC Sports Network, and BT Sport's coverage of the UEFA Champions League.

Lineker began his football career at Leicester City in 1978, and finished as the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984–85. He then moved to league champions Everton, where he won both the PFA Players' Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards in his debut season, before moving to Spanish club Barcelona. Lineker placed 2nd in the 1986 Ballon d’Or for his performances at Everton after transferring to Barcelona. With the Spanish side, he won the 1987–88 Copa del Rey and the 1989 European Cup Winners' Cup. He joined Tottenham Hotspur in 1989, and won his second FWA Footballer of the Year and the FA Cup, his first and only major trophy in English football. Lineker's final club was Nagoya Grampus Eight; he retired in 1994 after two seasons at the Japanese side.

Lineker made his England debut in 1984, earning 80 caps and scoring 48 goals over an eight-year international career, which made him England's second-highest international goalscorer on his retirement. He remains England's fourth-highest scorer, behind Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney and Bobby Charlton, and his goals-to-games ratio remains one of the best for the country.^[2][3] His six goals in the 1986 FIFA World Cup made him the tournament's top scorer, receiving the Golden Boot. Lineker was again integral to England's progress to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup, scoring another four goals. He still holds England's record for goals in the FIFA World Cup.

Lineker never received a yellow or red card during his career,^[4] and he also never won a top-flight league title.^[5] He was honoured in 1990 with the FIFA Fair Play Award. In a senior career which spanned 16 years and 654 competitive games, Lineker scored a total of 331 goals, including 283 goals at club level. After his retirement from football he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. A keen supporter of Leicester City, he led a consortium in 2002 that invested in his old club, saving it from bankruptcy, and was appointed honorary vice-president.