‏Gary Lineker‏

Gary Lineker was English football's top striker in the 1980s and the early 1990s. A unique blend of skill, intelligence and CHARM, people knew that when he was alone with only the goalkeeper to stop him, there would either be a penalty or a goal. At the same time, being as venemous as always up front, he was an extreme professional, who never lost his temper. During his 14 year long professional career, Gary Lineker was never cautioned, let alone sent off! Very, very few footballers have achieved this. He achieved stardom with Everton, after initially playing for Leicester. He then had spells with FC Barcelona and other big clubs before returning to Tottenham for the final years on top of football. After this, he played two years in Japan for Nagoya Grampus Eight before a foot injury finished his career and he returned to England, to become a TV commentary and presenter for the BBC. Through all these years, he was England's man up front, saving them more than once during the big matches. He has captained them for a few years too. An example of his value: when England was trailing 1-2 to Cameroon in thew 1990 WC. Lineker produced two penalties by his dazzling runs, and scored from both, securing England's 3-2 victory. In the next match, he equalised for England with an extremely cold-blooded strike, when they were trailing 1-0 to West Germany in the semi final. In the 1986 WC, England had a lousy 1 point from the first two matches against Portugal and Morocco. Lineker's hat-trick saw England win 3-0 against Poland, and on England went into the quarter finals, where they beat Paraguay 3-0 as well, before crashing out to Argentina, thanks to one holy hand and a world-class 8-players-and-a-goalie dribblemania goal of Diego Maradona. Guess who scored England's only goal of the match ...