Gary Lineker

Gary Winston Lineker was born on 30 November 1960 in Leicester. His middle name came from Winston Churchill, whose birthday he shares. He has one younger brother, Wayne. His father, Barry, ran a fruit and veg stall at Leicester Market, a family trade stretching back to his great-grandfather.

As a child, Lineker helped out on the stall. Despite being white, he was racially abused for his dark features. He attended Caldecote Road School and then City of Leicester Boys’ Grammar School, choosing it because it played football rather than rugby. He captained the Leicestershire Schools cricket team from ages 11 to 16 and thought he had a better chance in cricket, idolising David Gower.

He played youth football for Aylestone Park Youth and later became its president. He left school with four O Levels; one teacher wrote that he concentrated too much on football and would never make a living from it. He joined Leicester City’s youth academy in 1976.

Lineker turned professional in the 1978–79 season and made his senior debut on New Year’s Day 1979, a 2–0 win over Oldham Athletic in the Second Division. He earned a Second Division title medal the following season with 19 appearances, but played only nine league games in 1980–81 as Leicester were relegated. He became a regular in 1981–82, scoring 19 goals. Leicester missed promotion but reached the FA Cup semi-finals, then won promotion the next season with Lineker scoring 26 times in the Second Division. In 1983–84, he was the First Division’s second-highest scorer with 22 goals. The next season he was joint top scorer with 24 goals, forming a prolific partnership with Alan Smith.

Defending league champions Everton signed him for £800,000 in 1985. He scored 40 goals in 57 games in 1985–86, leading the First Division with 30 goals. He won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards that season. He then moved to Barcelona, where he won the 1987–88 Copa del Rey and the 1989 European Cup Winners’ Cup. In 1989 he joined Tottenham Hotspur, winning a second FWA Footballer of the Year award and the FA Cup, his only major English club trophy. He finished his career at Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan, retiring in 1994 after two seasons.

Lineker made his England debut in 1984. Over eight years he earned 80 caps and scored 48 goals, making him England’s second-highest scorer at retirement. He now ranks fourth, behind Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney and Bobby Charlton, with one of the best goals-to-games ratios for the country. At the 1986 World Cup he scored six goals, winning the Golden Boot as top scorer, and finished second in the 1986 Ballon d’Or.

At the 1990 World Cup he scored four more goals, helping England reach the semi-finals. He never received a yellow or red card in his career and never won a top-flight league title. He received the FIFA Fair Play Award in 1990. Over 16 senior seasons and 654 competitive games, he scored 331 goals, 283 at club level.

He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. In 2002 he led a consortium that invested in Leicester City, saving it from bankruptcy, and was appointed honorary vice-president.

After football, Lineker began a media career with the BBC. He presented Match of the Day from 1999 to 2025, the longest tenure of any host, and was the BBC’s lead presenter for live matches and international tournaments like the World Cup. He also worked for Al Jazeera Sports, Eredivisie Live, NBC Sports Network, and BT Sport’s Champions League coverage. In 2018 he co-founded Goalhanger, a media company that produces podcasts, notably those under the “The Rest Is…” brand.