Gary Lineker

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 30:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My castaway this week is a sportsman. Born nearly thirty years ago, the son of a fruit and veg merchant, his life might have been unremarkable, but for one outstanding ability. He could play football. Apprenticed to Leicester City at the age of sixteen, he turned professional at eighteen and went on to play for England. In 1985 he was bought by Everton for £800,000. One year and forty goals later, by Barcelona for more than two million.

Presenter0:58

Admired for his good behaviour, he's never once been booked, and his outstanding skill he was the top scorer in the eighty six World Cup, he is one of the best ambassadors of our national game. He is, of course, the Captain of England, Gary Lineker.

Presenter1:13

Twelve years on the professional football field, Gary, and never been booked. Now, what do you put that down to? Is it niceness? Skill?

Gary Lineker1:20

Well, I think I haven't got a temper which helps, um, because I do get my fair share of stick and of bad treatment, but um

Gary Lineker1:28

I'm a very placid person, pretty easygoing.

Presenter1:31

But even on the football field.

Gary Lineker1:32

Well, yeah, especially so. I mean, I like to enjoy the game. Um sometimes it's difficult when you're getting kicked a bit.

Gary Lineker1:38

The term

Gary Lineker1:39

I've never been one to retaliate. It's just something that's it's not in me, it's the way I'm made. Plus the fact I've been a bit lucky at times. I don't argue with referees because I think it's a waste of time. I talk to them a little bit and I tell them if I think they're wrong, but I try and do it in in a nice way. I think it helps because perhaps that way sometimes you might

Gary Lineker1:57

get a bit of an advantage later on we're on a tricky decision for them.

Presenter2:00

So you don't lose your temper. I mean, on the football field, do you ever lose your temper?

Gary Lineker2:04

Not really, no. I think um my wife will back me up on that.

Gary Lineker2:07

Go on, women.

Presenter2:07

Go on. When was the last time you lost your Tim?

Gary Lineker2:10

I honestly can't remember. When I can remember losing it a few times as a kid, but um very rarely since.

Presenter2:16

So will you be calm and contented and patient on the desert island, you know, waiting?

Gary Lineker2:21

Well hopefully if you um go easy with the questions.

Presenter2:25

But when you sit on this desert island, what will you think about? Will you think of escape or will you just sit there placidly and enjoy it?

Gary Lineker2:31

I should definitely enjoy the sun. Hopefully it's a sunny place, this desert island. And um I do enjoy relaxing and swimming and things like that. So I would pass my time

Gary Lineker2:43

Doing plenty of those sort of things.

Presenter2:44

And how much will you need your music?

Gary Lineker2:48

Yeah.

Gary Lineker2:49

I am not the greatest music lover in the world. I like what I like.

Gary Lineker2:52

I'm a car radio sort of music fan really. If I'm in the car I like to turn the music up and and sing along to it, so I would think um

Gary Lineker3:01

I'd pick a few popular sing-along tunes that I know quite well to sort of pass a few evenings.

Presenter3:08

Right, let's pass the first evening. What are you going to play first?

Gary Lineker3:11

Well, it's um a favourite of mine by Simply Red called Holding Back the Years. I actually saw them in concert a year or so ago, one of the rare concerts I've seen. Um I've since met Mick Hucknell, who came out to Sardinia just before the World Cup. We met him there, and actually caddied for me as we played golf, would you believe? And um so that's my first one.

Speaker 13:36

For the arms of me.

Speaker 13:41

Get to me the sooner I lay

Speaker 13:49

Uh

Gary Lineker3:49

I'll keep holding on.

Presenter3:58

Simply read, and holding back the years. What about age, Garry? How much does it worry you? You're you're what, nearly thirty?

Gary Lineker4:05

Yes.

Presenter4:06

How long?

Gary Lineker4:06

Although I keep reading the papers, I'm nearly thirty-one, which I don't quite like too much.

Presenter4:11

But what's the life span of a a world class striker?

Gary Lineker4:14

Well, it's difficult, it varies. Um but once you get into the thirties then

Gary Lineker4:19

Then it can happen sort of any time, really. I think that um

Gary Lineker4:22

You know yourself, or people tell me you know yourself, when you can't quite run as fast, or you don't last quite so long as you used to.

Gary Lineker4:28

Um but at the moment I still feel very good.

Gary Lineker4:31

Um I still think I've got a few years left in in me yet.

Presenter4:35

When you were eighteen you could run a hundred metres in ten and a half seconds.

Gary Lineker4:40

Yeah, more or less.

Presenter4:40

How long does it take you now?

Gary Lineker4:42

I don't think I could run a hundred metres now. I think I trained quite a bit when I was

Presenter4:45

Are they not trying to

Gary Lineker4:47

That sort of age, but um certainly takes me longer to warm up now than it used to.

Presenter4:51

So it's it's speed and stamina that goes, isn't it? But it seems a bit unfair, because of course goalies can go on forever, can't they?

Gary Lineker4:58

Well, not forever, although Peter Shunt perhaps argue with you. Um

Gary Lineker5:02

But of course we do have to run around a lot, um and particularly probably strikers. They don't perhaps work

Gary Lineker5:09

as hard as say a midfield player who has to run up and down all day. But we have to sort of make continual sprints and and that is top speed running and you have to recover for the next one and be ready for another one.

Gary Lineker5:21

and repeatedly over again. So it does take its toll and um that's why we only sort of last till earl our early thirties really.

Presenter5:29

Was football always destined to be your career or or did you have a choice in those early years?

Gary Lineker5:35

Well, I was as a kid I was a football fanatic. Um, I used to practice in the garden with my brother.

Gary Lineker5:40

in the winter and in the summer it was always cricket. We used to play all the time, um ev every minute that we possibly could and of course in winter nights

Gary Lineker5:47

tend to be longer than they are in the summer, so

Gary Lineker5:50

Which meant coming home from school and not really being able to play. So what we did we sort of got a load of lamps, all the lamps that were in the house and put them in the upstairs window.

Gary Lineker5:58

and and shone them on the garden, so that that kept us going right through the winter.

Presenter6:02

This was with your brother Wayne, who's younger than you.

Gary Lineker6:05

He's a year younger yet.

Presenter6:06

So what in the end did you have that he didn't?

Gary Lineker6:10

Well, dedication, really,'cause Wayne's a very talented footballer, and always was, but he's the sort of person that'll do something for a couple of years, or even less.

Gary Lineker6:18

um give it his devoted attention, and then get fed up with it.

Presenter6:22

But you made a decision that football was going to be it for you and you just got down to business.

Gary Lineker6:27

Well, I really wanted it to be. Um

Gary Lineker6:29

Unfortunately I had the natural

Gary Lineker6:31

um ability, call it what you may, to to help me along my way.

Presenter6:35

At what point then in all of this did it become apparent that you weren't just really a very good footballer who'd be chosen for all the best local teams and his school team and all the rest of it? At what point?

Presenter6:44

Was it realized that you were a very special talent?

Gary Lineker6:47

I always scored a lot of goals right from a very early age.

Gary Lineker6:50

And people around me believed it.

Gary Lineker6:52

And I always played in the representative side for for Leicester boys, right through.

Gary Lineker6:57

But I never got anywhere near England schools or anything like that. I wasn't an exceptional talent at that age.

Gary Lineker7:03

Um, I was a late developer. I just slowly develop really, even af and the most important time is after you leave school and you join you do your apprenticeship and and you carry on. And that's when I just gradually improved for every level that I played at.

Gary Lineker7:17

Um things went okay for me, each time to my great surprise.

Presenter7:22

We'll hear about the apprenticeship in a minute, but let's have the second record.

Presenter7:25

What's that?

Gary Lineker7:26

This is by Booker T and M G's. I didn't know the title, I had to look it up to be honest. I didn't know who sung it, but it was it's the theme tune to the music that's played on BBC.

Gary Lineker7:35

Every time the cricket's on.

Gary Lineker7:37

And it o' it'll remind me of the cricket when I was out there on the desert island.

Presenter8:09

Booker T and the M G's and Soul Limbo, that cricketing theme tune. So you might have been a cricketer then, Gary.

Gary Lineker8:16

Well that will never know. Um I certainly liked playing and played to a a reasonable standard as a kid in Leicestershire schools and Midland schools and things.

Gary Lineker8:23

But, um, football sort of took precedent really and uh from when I left school.

Presenter8:29

But it you sound rather like Ian Botham, who has also said that he might have been a footballer. I mean, I think there are just chaps like you around who make ordinary men sick, really. You just can turn your hand to anything that's got a ball in it.

Gary Lineker8:41

I think it's an eye for a ball. Um I think I've certainly got that. Um as a lot of footballers have. I mean there's a lot of footballers that are very good cricketers.

Presenter8:48

And you mentioned golf just now as well.

Gary Lineker8:51

I play a little bit of golf when I can. Not so clever at golf, to be honest.

Presenter8:54

What's your handicap?

Gary Lineker8:54

What you have

Gary Lineker8:55

Well, I'm not a member anywhere, but I would think it'd be about sixteen, something like that.

Presenter8:59

It's not bad for a chap who doesn't play much, is it?

Gary Lineker9:02

No, it's it's difficult. Um

Gary Lineker9:05

I don't know why it is, but it sports and ball sports do come reasonably easy to me. Snooker as well I I was very keen on and uh managed to get a few hundred breaks.

Gary Lineker9:14

Which is nice. I mean I'm not I'm not complaining.

Presenter9:17

So you might have been a a snooker champion, you might have been a cricketer, you are a footballer, you might have ended up, of course, selling fruit and veg in Leicester if you hadn't been spotted. Now when and how did that happen?

Gary Lineker9:29

Well, I think the first

Gary Lineker9:31

I know of it. It was what my grandad told me we got home from a game one.

Gary Lineker9:35

One evening I was playing for a

Gary Lineker9:37

and Aylston Park.

Gary Lineker9:38

Junior team, which I play for every Sunday.

Gary Lineker9:41

I was only probably twelve or thirteen at the time.

Gary Lineker9:45

Um my granddad came home and he said that um

Gary Lineker9:48

The Chief Scout of of Leicester was standing on the touchline, a fellow he knew, a fellow called Ray Shaw.

Gary Lineker9:56

And

Gary Lineker9:57

My grandad, who knew him, said to him, Well, what are you doing here? You watching? he said.

Gary Lineker10:02

Well, I'm watching the young centre forward over there and it it just happened to be me and my granddad who's who's always been proud.

Gary Lineker10:09

um, was quick to tell us. So that's the first interest that Leicester City showed and from then it went to signing schoolboy forms. I did training twice a week with Leicester after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Gary Lineker10:22

for two years and eventually took me on as an apprentice.

Presenter10:25

But did you know about big time football then? As you say you were about twelve or thirteen. I mean, had you been to any big games? Had you been to Wembley?

Gary Lineker10:32

Oh yes, I'd been um a big Leicester fan, season ticket holders, both my father and myself, and my granddad and my brother. We all went every week to watch Leicester at Philbert Street.

Gary Lineker10:42

I remember seeing my first game at Wembley was the final in sixty nine.

Gary Lineker10:45

Where Leicester lost one nil to Manchester City in.

Gary Lineker10:49

I was standing behind the goal that Peter Shilton was in.

Gary Lineker10:51

I was only eight at the time and

Presenter10:53

The

Gary Lineker10:53

Um eventually I got to room with him with England and have done for five years.

Presenter10:55

You have to

Presenter10:57

He's a great mate now.

Gary Lineker10:58

Hell yeah, we became real partners at international level.

Gary Lineker11:01

And got to know him really well. We're both Leicester lads.

Presenter11:04

Just a slight difference in age.

Gary Lineker11:06

Just a slight difference.

Presenter11:08

But if if that little boy Dineker had been told that day at Wembley that one day he would be Peter Shilton's friend and and be an England superstar, how would he have reacted?

Gary Lineker11:19

I don't think he'd have believed it. Um just to

Gary Lineker11:22

See him play was great. Um the chance to have ever met him or got his autograph would have been fabulous, but um to imagine that one day

Gary Lineker11:29

I'd be playing the same England side as him would have been too much to believe, I think.

Presenter11:34

Record number three.

Gary Lineker11:35

Well this is an old favourite of mine, I'm a big Rod Stewart fan. I actually saw him in concert in Barcelona once, which was great. It's Maggie Mae.

Presenter11:44

Wake up, Maggie, I think I got something to say to you.

Presenter11:51

It's late September and I really should be back at school

Presenter11:58

I know I keep you on mute

Presenter12:01

But I feel I'm being used.

Presenter12:05

Oh Maggie, I couldn't have tried.

Presenter12:09

Any more

Presenter12:11

Rod Stewart and Maggie May. So tell me about becoming an apprentice to Leicester City. You were sixteen years old. What did you look like?

Gary Lineker12:19

Well, I was very much smaller than I am now. I was only about five foot six, and ne nine stone wet through.

Gary Lineker12:24

Um which always look to be

Gary Lineker12:26

A big problem for

Presenter12:27

What do you mean wet through? Is that how they wear you?

Gary Lineker12:29

Oh, well, after the shower, of course.

Presenter12:31

Oh, I see.

Gary Lineker12:32

Yes. And sweating and things like that you do.

Gary Lineker12:35

But um it always looked like it might be a problem, my weight and size. Um I was easily knocked off the ball. But they put me on a sort of weight training course and I was fed steaks and given bottles of milk and things by the club, and put on a diet.

Gary Lineker12:50

Whether that was the reason I grew to what I am now, I don't know, but um.

Gary Lineker12:54

Although I'm not still the not the biggest in the world, but um I'm something like twelve and a half stone now and five foot ten.

Presenter13:01

So how many of you apprentices were there?

Gary Lineker13:04

I think there was um nine in my particular year plus six or seven from the the previous year. You basically do a two-year apprenticeship.

Presenter13:10

Yeah.

Gary Lineker13:12

And then the manager of the club at the time decides whether he thinks you're good enough or not.

Presenter13:17

But what did you have to do during that apprenticeship?

Gary Lineker13:20

Well, apart from your training, which you have to do every day, usually morning and afternoon, you have the messy jobs to do.

Gary Lineker13:26

I personally had the job of cleaning out the first team dressing room.

Gary Lineker13:30

Which I didn't mind too much because it was sort of contact with with all your heroes. And I think remember people like Frank Worthington and Keith Weller and

Gary Lineker13:37

Mark Wallington, people like that, who were great heroes to me. I was sort of picking up their dirty, smelly, sweaty kit off the floor, which and stinky socks and things, and um putting them in baskets and taking them

Gary Lineker13:50

to the drying room. They didn't get clean kit every day, they basically

Gary Lineker13:54

Put it in the drying room after every training session until the next day, so you can imagine by Thursday and Friday it wasn't smelling too healthy.

Presenter14:01

So all you apprentices were there waiting for that that call from the manager to come, which could come at any time or perhaps not come at all?

Gary Lineker14:06

Which

Gary Lineker14:08

They don't accept money, but two or three may be out of all the apprentices.

Presenter14:12

So do you remember the day the call came for you?

Gary Lineker14:14

I remember it very well.

Gary Lineker14:15

Jock Wallace was the manager at the time, and he called me in.

Gary Lineker14:19

And he looked a bit serious, as he always did, but you always think the worst.

Gary Lineker14:23

But fortunately it was good news for me, and that was that was a great day.

Presenter14:27

Can you remember the first match you played for Leicester City?

Gary Lineker14:31

Very clearly, because I was awful.

Gary Lineker14:33

Um it was New Year's Day, nineteen seventy nine.

Gary Lineker14:36

We're playing at Philbert Street at home against Oldham.

Gary Lineker14:40

There was three players making the debut. One was called Bobby Smith, who had just signed from Scotland. Another lad was Dave Buchanan, who was even younger than me.

Gary Lineker14:48

And myself, those two scored. We won 2-0 and um they got all the headlines and I was sort of dropped for four months.

Presenter14:55

What position had you played?

Gary Lineker14:56

Well, he put me on the right wing, which is I'd never really played. Um it's often the case when you're a y young player. They tend to think, Well, he looks okay, so we'll get him in, but they can't really put you in where you want to play, so you end up playing out of position, which doesn't really do you any favours, and certainly didn't do me any.

Gary Lineker15:12

It was a frosty hard pitch as well, I remember, and I was

Gary Lineker15:15

being knocked over the all the time because as I said at that time I wasn't particularly big.

Presenter15:20

So it didn't look too promising really, this this future as a professional footballer.

Gary Lineker15:24

No, not at the time, although

Gary Lineker15:26

I'd have settled for just probably playing a game at the time for the first team. Um it was a big day. And I was very nervous as well, I remember.

Presenter15:33

Shall we have record number four?

Gary Lineker15:35

Why not? Um another big favourite, another one I really like to sing along to.

Gary Lineker15:40

I won't do that because that'd be terrible. Eric Clapson's Wonderful Tonight.

Gary Lineker15:45

It's on a makeup.

Gary Lineker15:50

Brushes are long, blonde hair.

Gary Lineker15:55

Yeah.

Speaker 315:55

And then she asked me

Speaker 315:59

Do I look alright?

Gary Lineker16:03

And I say yes.

Gary Lineker16:06

Let one do night

Presenter16:11

Eric Clapton and Wonderful Tonight.

Presenter16:14

What happened to you subsequently, of course, Gary Lineker, is well documented. You played for Leicester City for more than six years and more than one hundred goals, and then you made your full debut for England in nineteen eighty five, and you scored. And then, of course, you played in the Mexico World Cup nineteen eighty six and got the golden boot, because you were the top scorer. Do you do you still remember every match you've ever played in detail?

Gary Lineker16:37

No, not every match, no. Um I've played a few hundred now, that'd be asking a lot. I think I remember

Gary Lineker16:43

Nearly every England match and I remember nearly every goal I've scored.

Presenter16:44

And we remember nearly

Gary Lineker16:47

Hugged at that.

Gary Lineker16:48

But um it's difficult to remember every game, particularly the bad ones, we try and forget them.

Presenter16:52

How many goals have you scored, then, in in your whole professional career?

Gary Lineker16:56

Well, if you count all the games I've played in, um, as a professional, cup and league and everything.

Gary Lineker17:00

Somewhere over two hundred and fifty. If you gave me about five minutes I could work it out.

Presenter17:05

Two hundred and fifty is quite enough, yeah.

Gary Lineker17:05

Two hundred and fifty is

Presenter17:07

Well, there may be many more yet, of course.

Gary Lineker17:08

Well, I hope so. Um we keep trying.

Presenter17:11

Does the game become after a certain point as much a psychological game as a physical game?

Gary Lineker17:18

Oh very much so. Particularly as a striker you've because a lot of the game you can perhaps not be involved.

Gary Lineker17:23

Particularly if it's a day where the pressure's on your side and the other team's attacking and you're hanging about the halfway line.

Gary Lineker17:29

Then you have to be ready and you also on other occasions where the team's pressing a lot you've got to sort of try and make space, create space, to get that that vital yard on a defender to to get a chance to score the goal.

Presenter17:40

But it makes you a bit of a predator, really, doesn't it? I mean, you're kind of running up and down, adding it all up, working it all up, and just waiting for that moment. I mean, like a like a kind of bird that swoops.

Gary Lineker17:50

Well, that's the idea. I think that um the rest of the team have to do all the work or or most of the team and um the strikers are the ones

Gary Lineker17:58

There to really kill it off.

Presenter18:00

So if you're predatory, if you're competitive, which obviously we're saying you have to be on the field.

Presenter18:05

Is that contrary to your nature really? Because that's not like you are in in ordinary life, is it?

Gary Lineker18:11

It isn't, but I am ambitious as well. I think you can be ambitious and also sort of mild tempered at the same time. I've always wanted to be the best goal scorer, the top goal scorer, I've always wanted

Gary Lineker18:22

Um to win the golden boots of finishing first division leading scorer or World Cup leading scorer, play for England. I've always wanted those things very badly. And I think that's probably

Gary Lineker18:32

a different thing to sort of having a temper or or or flaring up.

Presenter18:36

We were talking earlier about the World Cup, the nineteen eighty six World Cup, Mexico. What that did for you, of course, was apart from get you the golden boot, was it was to seal your move from Everton to Barcelona for two point two million.

Presenter18:49

Nevertheless, a big decision to move to Spain. How big a decision for you?

Gary Lineker18:54

Well, it was very big because at the time it had

Gary Lineker18:57

A fabulous time at Everton, and it was difficult to leave, although the chance to play at

Gary Lineker19:01

What is one of the biggest clubs in the world?

Gary Lineker19:03

And also a nice place to live.

Gary Lineker19:05

And of course

Gary Lineker19:07

Financially it's also rewarding.

Gary Lineker19:09

At the end of the day was very, very difficult to turn down.

Presenter19:12

You were about to get married, weren't you?

Gary Lineker19:14

Yes, we were. That summer it was a hectic summer actually because we played.

Gary Lineker19:17

We played the World Cup.

Gary Lineker19:19

And we got home, got married, and was in.

Gary Lineker19:21

two days signed for Barcelona. Within a after the straight after the honeymoon we were

Gary Lineker19:26

We were in Barcelona without really knowing what would hit us.

Presenter19:29

But how much of a joint decision was it for you and Michel to decide to go?

Gary Lineker19:33

We kept saying, Well, should we, shouldn't we, should we, shouldn't we?

Gary Lineker19:36

one of us wouldn't actually say, Well, we should

Gary Lineker19:39

In the end we wrote down on separate pieces of paper, Yes or No, and we

Gary Lineker19:43

We both put yes, uh that's fairly joint.

Presenter19:45

You had a secret ballot?

Gary Lineker19:47

A secret ballot, yes.

Presenter19:49

Well now of course many a sportsman has gone abroad, not least for the money, and then got very miserable and and come home eventually.

Presenter19:56

With his tail between his legs. I mean, how did you avoid that happening to you?

Gary Lineker20:00

Well, I think if you do go there with a view to get there quicker and if you bobbin's serve your prison sentence, then you're not going to last too long. If you go there with the idea of making the most of it, to learn the language, learn the culture of the place, and to enjoy it

Gary Lineker20:16

Then I think you're successful. I think all the players that have been successful abroad have gone with that philosophy.

Presenter20:22

But you didn't just learn to communicate at an everyday level, did you? You ended up commentating on Spanish television, didn't you?

Gary Lineker20:28

Well, I did, although when I actually went to the studios I was led to believe I was just sort of doing an analysis type thing with a with a commentator, but I ended up co commentating the whole game. It's like

Gary Lineker20:39

a whole conversation. Of a game I was actually playing as well, which made it even more difficult, um because they showed it in Spain the day after.

Gary Lineker20:48

And and that was a good test,'cause I'd only been there

Gary Lineker20:51

a year or so at the time and

Gary Lineker20:54

It was a struggle, that was, I must admit. But fortunately, by the time we left, we were both pretty fluent.

Presenter21:00

Record number five.

Gary Lineker21:02

Well, I'm a big Monty Python fan, and and just to remind me and keep me happy, keep me smiling.

Gary Lineker21:08

Um I've picked always look on the bright side of life, which is a bit my philosophy as well I think.

Speaker 121:13

When you're feeling in the dumps, dumpy silly chumps, just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing.

Speaker 121:21

Angles look on the bright side of life.

Speaker 121:29

Always look on the bright side of life.

Presenter21:36

The Monty Python team and always look on the bright side of life to make Gary Lineker laugh on his desert island. You could have done with a laugh or two when Johann Cruyff took over as manager of Barcelona, couldn't you? You had a rough time.

Gary Lineker21:49

It was a difficult time. When he first came I had

Gary Lineker21:52

hepatitis, which didn't help because it meant I missed preseasoning.

Gary Lineker21:56

and obviously getting to know the new manager.

Gary Lineker21:58

But when I did find myself fit again and playing I was I was playing in back in that right wing position where where I made my debut for Leicester, which didn't go well then and and um didn't go so well at Barcelona for me anyway.

Presenter22:10

Why do you think he did it?

Gary Lineker22:11

His idea basically was every player should be able to play in every position if they're good enough.

Gary Lineker22:16

probably because of the fact that he was so good himself as a player.

Gary Lineker22:20

But of course not everybody can do that, not everybody's as gifted as him.

Gary Lineker22:23

And it didn't work and I didn't enjoy it, so in the end.

Gary Lineker22:27

Although there was no major flare-ups, no major.

Gary Lineker22:29

problems. Um it was deemed best on both sides that I left

Presenter22:35

But it must have been um difficult at the best of times in Barcelona,'cause they're they're a fickle lot, the Spanish supporters, aren't they? I mean, one minute you're a hero and the next minute they don't want to know about you.

Gary Lineker22:44

Well, over there it's very much black and white. Um you can be playing well and they'll absolutely adore you. You will be the greatest thing that they've ever seen, and they'll tell you the greatest player that they've ever had in history.

Gary Lineker22:55

And then you can have one bad game.

Gary Lineker22:58

And they'll tell you that you're a failure and you you're no good and

Gary Lineker23:01

And vice versa, the nice thing that you always think of, if you're having a spell where you can't score, or a gun perhaps.

Gary Lineker23:08

Five games are not played particularly well.

Gary Lineker23:11

You always knew that you only had to have one good game, and that had all been forgotten very quickly.

Presenter23:16

But eventually you decided to come home and it was all negotiated. You came home last summer to to Spurs for one point one million, which was exactly half the price you went for, wasn't it?

Gary Lineker23:26

Yes, a few more years on, you see, you start getting towards the late twenties, the price starts going down.

Presenter23:32

But was it a great relief to be back, to be home?

Gary Lineker23:35

Well, I wasn't desperate to actually come back.

Gary Lineker23:37

I think if one of the big Italian clubs had come in I would have been more than interested to try Italy.

Gary Lineker23:43

Uh which is a tremendous league.

Gary Lineker23:45

But I've come, but I've signed a four year contract, so that would

Gary Lineker23:49

seemed to take me right to the end, but as we all know

Gary Lineker23:52

Teams can decide to sell players, big offers can come in from abroad, and I've certainly wasn't put off by my experience in Spain.

Presenter23:59

Mind you, we've got to escape from our desert island yet. Come on, what's the sixth record you're going to put on the gramophone there?

Gary Lineker24:05

This is one of my all-time favourites. It's Diastrates' Tunnel of Love.

Gary Lineker24:13

Let it rock and let it roll.

Gary Lineker24:17

Head the one on Bendy Fever.

Gary Lineker24:21

There was an arrow through my heart and my sin And the big wheel came on turning

Gary Lineker24:28

Neon birder

Gary Lineker24:31

It appears high on the world

Presenter24:40

Dire Straits and Tunnel of Love. And so to this year's World Cup, Gary. It must have been the most enormous disappointment for you not to get to the final, not to mention all of us.

Gary Lineker24:50

Well, it was. Um I think everybody saw.

Gary Lineker24:53

our reaction after the game. And I think everybody's reaction was the same. It was

Gary Lineker24:58

It was desperately disappointing.

Presenter24:59

It was tears in my house. Was it tears?

Gary Lineker25:01

I think it was tears everywhere, wasn't it? It was just a desperately disappointing way to lose as well on the awful penalties, but um

Gary Lineker25:08

We knew they were the rules before the tournament. It's just not nice when it happens to you who

Presenter25:12

Was there a lot of crying in the dressing room?

Gary Lineker25:15

Yes, there was quite a lot.

Gary Lineker25:17

It was a sad and quiet place.

Presenter25:19

Did you cry?

Gary Lineker25:21

I didn't uh actually know. I don't know why, I just felt I just felt completely

Gary Lineker25:26

sort of depressed really and I go quiet when I'm upset.

Presenter25:30

What about Bobby Robson?'Cause he always looked so calm and collected whenever we saw shots of him on the television. Yeah.

Gary Lineker25:34

Yeah.

Gary Lineker25:36

Probably the one thing he's not. Um he's not the most calm and collected person, he's very much an enthusiast.

Gary Lineker25:42

Very excitable.

Gary Lineker25:44

um and gets quite nervous.

Presenter25:45

You looked, it has to be said, you personally, utterly cool when you were taking your your penalty shot. Um did you really feel that? I mean what what does a player feel at that moment?

Gary Lineker25:56

Well, you don't feel that cool. I suppose it's like the duck bit where you're calm on the surface but flapping like hell underneath. But, um

Gary Lineker26:03

I think you've got to try and look cool, otherwise the goalkeeper will fancy his chances. But, um

Gary Lineker26:07

I remember the one against Cameroon in particular, where we were two one down with not too long to go.

Gary Lineker26:13

And I'd actually been taking penalties for

Gary Lineker26:15

for five years for England without actually having one.

Gary Lineker26:18

And then to suddenly get one at that particular moment.

Gary Lineker26:21

It wasn't really that pleasant, although I remember when the referee initially blew for it, I thought, Oh great, we're back in the game and then I thought, Oh no, it's me that's taking it.

Presenter26:32

But do you feel in that moment? Do you feel sick or ill or

Gary Lineker26:34

Well, a few negative thoughts went through my head. I must admit, I was thinking, Well, if I miss this, I'll they'll never allow me back in the country. I even thought of my brother that gets incredibly uptight when I'm playing anyway, let alone in a situation like that.

Gary Lineker26:47

In fact, in the end he told me that he was cowering in the corner of the room, squinting through sort of clenched fists. But fortunately it it went in, as did the following one, and also the one in the shootout.

Presenter26:58

But of course other people other people didn't get it.

Gary Lineker27:01

Well, it's very much a lottery, really. You can you can practise them, you can not practise them, but when it boils down to it, it's just

Gary Lineker27:08

It's a bit of luck really. I mean if if the goalkeeper guesses the right way then unless you hit it absolutely perfectly

Gary Lineker27:14

he's got a chance of saving it and um

Gary Lineker27:16

Unfortunately that happened to a couple of our players at the end.

Presenter27:19

What about the next World Cup? You you'll be, what, thirty three? Will you be too old to play?

Gary Lineker27:24

I don't know um at this stage. A as I said I think that um I know when I can't play as well.

Gary Lineker27:30

as I cannot or feel as good or feel as fit as I do at the moment.

Presenter27:33

But do you feel determined to be there or do you not mind to be a little bit of a drink?

Gary Lineker27:36

Well at the moment, it'd be nice to think so, although thirty-three for a striker is asking a lot.

Presenter27:42

Can you imagine, Gary, ever getting sick of football? Um can you ever imagine thinking to yourself, I I just can't face going out there and kicking that thing again?

Gary Lineker27:52

Not playing, no I love playing and I love the thought of scoring a goal which is my great passion.

Gary Lineker27:57

But, um, certainly training. That that's

Gary Lineker28:00

No doubt about that, I'm not the most enthusiastic trainer in the world.

Gary Lineker28:05

Basically because it with the pain of playing for so many years, with knocks and things, it takes me about half an hour to get going in the mornings.

Presenter28:12

Um and what about um well this is the difficult question what about Michelle, your wife? I mean, does she get bored with it?

Gary Lineker28:18

Well, not really. She likes to come to the games, uh, when we play at home. She didn't know anything about it at at the start.

Gary Lineker28:25

Probably still doesn't, but still enjoys watching.

Gary Lineker28:27

I think she enjoys it really.

Presenter28:29

Let's have your next record.

Gary Lineker28:31

Well on a desert island I would think um With or Without You is quite appropriate from you two.

Speaker 128:40

I'm a bad

Gary Lineker28:45

And I wish we found you

Gary Lineker28:51

Wherefore without you?

Presenter28:55

Uh

Gary Lineker28:55

Boy.

Presenter28:56

Before we

Gary Lineker28:57

Uh

Presenter28:57

Don't you

Presenter28:59

You too, with or without you.

Presenter29:02

If you have done very well for the game, Gary, it's also done very well for you. You're you're currently earning, I read, about five thousand pounds a week.

Gary Lineker29:09

Oh, don't believe everything you read. That's wrong.

Presenter29:11

All right, well, you're earning enough, anyway. What what do you spend it all on?

Gary Lineker29:15

Bought a nice house, saved a bit for because of course our careers don't last too long, as we've discussed earlier on.

Gary Lineker29:22

So you have to sort of

Gary Lineker29:24

Make plans for the future.

Presenter29:25

But you enjoy your money, obviously.

Gary Lineker29:27

Oh, I enjoy my life and, um

Gary Lineker29:30

Football's been fabulous to me.

Presenter29:32

So what happens when you do run out of pace and nobody does want to employ you any more on the football field? What what will give you a reason for getting up in the morning? What will you do?

Gary Lineker29:41

I enjoy media work, involved around sport, thoughts and commentary.

Presenter29:44

Commentating

Gary Lineker29:45

Well, things like that commentating.

Gary Lineker29:47

Um I've done quite a bit and getting involved with a bit more.

Gary Lineker29:50

So in a way I suppose it goes back to the the journalistic idea. If you can't do it, that's perhaps the next thing. Being a manager of a football club is not something that appeals, although apparently every player says that when they're younger.

Presenter30:02

What about managing England?

Gary Lineker30:04

Well, I don't think I'd turn that job down, but I don't think they'd probably give it me. They usually like somebody with a lot of experience. Which is okay, but ha a lot of signs abroad have proved that you can be successful by

Gary Lineker30:15

Just going straight to a player, as Germany did with Franz Beckenbauer. So it's possible, who knows?

Presenter30:21

You sound, all in all, I must say, rather saint-like, if if you don't mind my saying that.

Gary Lineker30:25

How am I saying that?

Presenter30:26

You're very level-headed. You've never been booked. You're happily married. You you hardly drink, I think. You don't go out much.

Gary Lineker30:32

Well, we go up quite a bit to restaurants and things. I'm not a nightclub or anything and um I do like a glass of wine.

Presenter30:36

I do like

Presenter30:38

But you're a good clean lad.

Gary Lineker30:39

Oh, I hope so.

Presenter30:41

But is there a great ball of indiscipline inside you that would love to burst out? I mean, are you kind of controlled because that's how you have to be and that's the job you've chosen to do to make your money?

Gary Lineker30:50

No, basically I'm pretty boring. I think

Gary Lineker30:54

Um

Gary Lineker30:56

Not really. I very, very much enjoy the way I live. Um I enjoy going out for a meal um with my wife. Um if that's boring or saintly, well I'm sorry, but that's what I enjoy doing.

Gary Lineker31:06

I enjoy my work and I'm very lucky.

Presenter31:09

Last record.

Gary Lineker31:11

Well, I think I've picked all my favorite bands, which is when I sat down to actually think about it, I not only picked my favorite songs, but I picked all

Gary Lineker31:18

My favourite singers and my favourite bands and uh Elton John certainly comes among that category. And my all-time favourite of his is Candle in the Wind.

Speaker 131:30

G

Speaker 131:31

Run there

Speaker 131:33

Knew you were done, you had the grace to hold yourself with those around your corn.

Speaker 131:43

Roll out of the woodwork.

Speaker 131:47

And they whispered. Uh

Gary Lineker31:48

Into your brain they set you on the treadmill

Gary Lineker31:53

And they made a change in

Presenter31:56

Elton John, and Candle in the Wind. So which of the eight, Garry, is the one that you really must have more than all the others?

Gary Lineker32:03

Well, I'm going to put bucket in the

Gary Lineker32:06

M G's in Solimba, you'll find out why later on.

Presenter32:10

Oh, I see. Well, let's have the book next then. There's uh you've got the Bible and you've got Shakespeare.

Gary Lineker32:15

I want the works of wisdom.

Presenter32:17

It's very crickety this.

Gary Lineker32:18

It is a little bit cricketier. That's a word.

Presenter32:22

What's the luxury then?

Gary Lineker32:24

The luxury is a bowling machine.

Gary Lineker32:26

I'm going to stage my own test matches.

Gary Lineker32:28

I figured I could

Gary Lineker32:30

Just about make a cricket bat.

Gary Lineker32:32

Especially if there's um a willow tree on my desert island.

Gary Lineker32:36

And I

Gary Lineker32:37

Then have the bowling machine to bowl to me all day, and the music to introduce me.

Presenter32:42

And you'll never be caught out.

Gary Lineker32:44

That is true, I never thought of that, and I won't be given out either. No umpires.

Presenter32:48

Gary Lineker, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Gary Lineker32:52

Thanks, enjoyed it.

Speaker 333:01

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.