Gary Winston Lineker is an English sports broadcaster and former professional footballer.
77 Facts About Gary Lineker
2.
Gary Lineker played for Barcelona in Spain, and won 80 caps for England.
3.
Gary Lineker finished his career as England's second top international goalscorer.
4.
Gary Lineker has presented the BBC's flagship football show, Match of the Day, since 1999.
5.
Gary Lineker 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.
6.
Gary Lineker placed 3rd in the 1986 Ballon d'Or for his performances at Everton after transferring to Barcelona.
7.
Gary Lineker joined Tottenham Hotspur in 1989, and won his second FWA Footballer of the Year and won the FA Cup, his first and only major trophy in English football.
8.
Gary Lineker made his England debut in 1984, earning 80 caps and scoring 48 goals over an eight-year international career.
9.
Gary Lineker is England's fourth-highest scorer, behind Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney and Bobby Charlton, and his international goals-to-games ratio remains one of the best for the country.
10.
Gary Lineker was again integral to England's progress to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup, scoring another four goals.
11.
Gary Lineker still holds England's record for goals in the FIFA World Cup.
12.
Gary Lineker never received a yellow or red card during his career, and he never won a top-flight league title.
13.
Gary Lineker was honoured in 1990 with the FIFA Fair Play Award.
14.
Gary Lineker is the BBC's lead presenter for live football matches, including coverage of international tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup.
15.
Gary Lineker has worked for Al Jazeera Sports, Eredivisie Live, NBC Sports Network, and BT Sport's coverage of the UEFA Champions League.
16.
Gary Winston Lineker was born on 30 November 1960 in Leicester, the son of Margaret P and Barry Lineker.
17.
Gary Lineker was given his middle name in honour of Winston Churchill, with whom he shares a birthday.
18.
Gary Lineker has one brother, Wayne, who is two years his junior.
19.
Gary Lineker grew up with his family in the city, playing football with Wayne.
20.
Barry Lineker ran Lineker's fruit and veg stall in Leicester Market, and as a child and a young player Gary regularly helped out on the stall.
21.
Gary Lineker, who is white, received racial abuse as a child for his dark features.
22.
Gary Lineker first attended Caldecote Road School, Braunstone in Leicester.
23.
Gary Lineker later stated on They Think It's All Over that as a teenager he idolised former England captain David Gower, who was playing for Leicestershire at the time.
24.
Gary Lineker then joined the youth academy at Leicester City in 1976.
25.
Gary Lineker was again the First Division's leading goal scorer, this time with 30 goals, and helped Everton finish second in the league.
26.
Gary Lineker has consistently stated since retiring from football that this Everton team was the best club side he ever played in.
27.
Gary Lineker made his Barcelona debut against Racing Santander, scoring twice.
28.
Gary Lineker played in Barcelona's shock home and away defeats to Dundee United.
29.
In November 1991, Gary Lineker accepted an offer of a two-year contract from J1 League club Nagoya Grampus Eight.
30.
Gary Lineker first played for the full England team against Scotland in 1984.
31.
Gary Lineker played five games in the 1986 World Cup and was top scorer of the tournament with six goals, winning the Golden Boot, making him the first English player to have done so.
32.
Gary Lineker scored the second quickest hat-trick ever at a FIFA World Cup tournament against Poland, the second English player to score a hat-trick at a World Cup, and scored two goals against Paraguay in the second round.
33.
Gary Lineker played most of the tournament wearing a lightweight cast on his forearm.
34.
Gary Lineker scored for England in the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina, but the game ended in defeat as Diego Maradona scored twice for the opposition.
35.
In 1988, Gary Lineker played in Euro 88, but failed to score as England lost all three Group games.
36.
Gary Lineker was unwell during the tournament, and accidentally defecated in his shorts during the opening group game against the Republic of Ireland.
37.
Gary Lineker retired from international football with eighty caps and forty-eight goals, one fewer goal than Sir Bobby Charlton's England record.
38.
Gary Lineker had earlier missed a penalty that would have brought him level, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil.
39.
Gary Lineker was visibly upset at the decision, not looking at Taylor as he took the bench.
40.
Gary Lineker scored four goals in an England match on two occasions and is one of very few players never to have been given a yellow card or a red card in any type of game.
41.
Gary Lineker appeared as a team captain on the sports game show They Think It's All Over from 1995 to 2003.
42.
Gary Lineker presented Grandstand in the London studio while then-presenter Desmond Lynam was in Aintree when the Grand National was abandoned because of a bomb alert at the racecourse in 1997.
43.
In 2005, Gary Lineker was sued for defamation by Australian footballer Harry Kewell over comments Gary Lineker had made writing in his column in The Sunday Telegraph about Kewell's transfer from Leeds United to Liverpool.
44.
In May 2010, Gary Lineker resigned from his role as columnist for The Mail on Sunday in protest over the sting operation against Lord Triesman that reportedly jeopardised England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
45.
Gary Lineker then began working as an anchor for the English language football coverage for Al Jazeera Sport, which is broadcast throughout most of the Middle East.
46.
In 2013, Gary Lineker began working for NBCSN as part of their Premier League coverage and contributing to the US version of Match of the Day.
47.
On 9 June 2015, Gary Lineker was unveiled as the lead presenter of BT Sport's Champions League coverage.
48.
Gary Lineker's pay has been criticised by Julian Knight, chair of the parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, and Dame Esther Rantzen.
49.
The BBC's Director General, Tim Davie, stated that Gary Lineker's pay was justified "because of the value of analysis to the viewing audience".
50.
In March 2023, Gary Lineker was required to step back from presenting on the BBC for three days due to a controversy over his criticism of the British government's immigration policy on Twitter.
51.
Gary Lineker has appeared in television commercials for the Leicester-based snack company Walkers.
52.
Gary Lineker participated in Prince Edward's charity television special The Grand Knockout Tournament in 1987.
53.
Gary Lineker appeared in the 1991 play An Evening with Gary Lineker by Arthur Smith and Chris England, which was adapted for television in 1994.
54.
Gary Lineker presented a six-part TV series for the BBC in 1998 called Golden Boots, with other football celebrities.
55.
In 2006, Gary Lineker took on an acting role as the voice of Underground Ernie on the BBC's children's channel, CBeebies.
56.
Gary Lineker has made a number of cameo appearances in TV shows and movies, such as the 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham, the 2014 BBC TV film Marvellous, and a number of appearances in the Apple TV+ football comedy TV series Ted Lasso.
57.
In May 2014, Gary Lineker established his own production company Goalhanger Films Ltd.
58.
In November 1991, George, Gary Lineker's eldest son, survived a rare form of leukaemia whilst he was a baby, and was treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
59.
Gary Lineker has been involved with the Fight for Life and Cancer Research UK charities.
60.
Gary Lineker was made a freeman of the City of Leicester in 1995 and he has been referred to as "Leicester's favourite son".
61.
Gary Lineker stated that he would invest a six-figure sum and that other members of his consortium would invest a similar amount.
62.
Gary Lineker met with fans' groups to persuade them to try and raise money to rescue his former club.
63.
Gary Lineker is honorary Vice President of Leicester City FC.
64.
Gary Lineker married Danielle Bux on 2 September 2009, in Ravello, Italy.
65.
On 13 January 2016, Lineker and Bux announced they were divorcing, after six years of marriage, the reason given being Gary not wanting more children.
66.
In November 2017, Gary Lineker was named in the Paradise Papers in connection with a tax avoidance scheme relating to property owned in Barbados and a company set up in the British Virgin Islands.
67.
Gary Lineker speaks Spanish, which he learnt during his time playing for FC Barcelona, and is an advocate for the teaching of foreign languages in schools.
68.
Gary Lineker has been noted for political views which he shares on Twitter.
69.
Gary Lineker endorsed a Remain vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.
70.
In December 2018, Gary Lineker was criticised by the BBC's cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew for expressing his political views on Twitter.
71.
In October 2022, a complaint about a tweet from Gary Lineker that referred to donations to the Conservative Party was upheld by the BBC, on the grounds that it breached social media use guidelines and failed to meet editorial standards of impartiality.
72.
In March 2023, Gary Lineker criticised the British government's asylum policy via Twitter.
73.
Gary Lineker received support from other political figures, including Baron Dubs, Alastair Campbell, and Angela Rayner.
74.
Gary Lineker's suspension was ended and the BBC announced it would initiate an independent review of its social media guidelines and how they apply to freelancers outside news.
75.
Director-General Tim Davie stated that Gary Lineker had agreed to abide by the corporation's editorial guidelines until the review into them has been completed.
76.
Gary Lineker almost equalled the England goalscoring record, held at the time by Bobby Charlton, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil, but he missed a penalty kick, leaving him one goal short of Charlton's total, which was overtaken by Wayne Rooney in 2015.
77.
Gary Lineker is a Visiting Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, appointed 2020.