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Gary Lineker
| Category: | Male Player |
| Year Inducted: | 2003 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of Football's Greatest Heroes, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
Gary Lineker is the only English footballer to win the FIFA Golden Boot award as the leading goalscorer in a World Cup finals tournament.
Lineker earned the accolade for his feat in scoring six goals in Mexico in 1986, when England reached the last eight. Four years later, he added four more at Italia '90, including the celebrated equaliser against West Germany in the semi-final.
Bobby Robson, the England manager at both tournaments, said: ‘Gary was simply the best finisher I've ever seen.' His eventual total of 48 goals during an eight-year international career, fell only one short of Bobby Charlton's record.
Typically, all of Lineker's goals in Mexico – most notably the hat-trick against Poland – were scored from close range. As he said himself: ‘I was what we call in the trade a box-player - not one for spectacular shots from distance.'
Three times during his career Lineker finished leading goalscorer in the top flight – and with three different clubs: Leicester City, Everton, and, finally, Tottenham Hotspur.
A great goalscorer rather than a scorer of great goals, or so the saying went, Lineker realised his limitations, making the most of his natural gifts: pace, positional sense, anticipation - and, notably, strength of character: three times he stepped forward to take a vital penalty - against Cameroon, twice, and West Germany - during the knockout stages of the World Cup in 1990 - and three times he scored from the spot.
In open play, ‘I always concentrate on getting a half-yard start on my marker, usually at the near-post', he said, explaining his methods. ‘I look to capitalise on mistakes made by defenders and make repeated runs into the right areas. I'm always prepared to gamble on the ball arriving at the same moment.'
‘No-one could match Gary's pace over 40 yards,' Howard Kendall said. Double Footballer of the Year, Lineker scored 30 league goals that season, his only campaign at Goodison Park, as Everton finished runners-up.
A losing FA Cup finalist with Everton in 1986, Lineker put the record straight in 1991, when his goals for Spurs against fierce rivals Arsenal in the semi-final paved the way for victory over Nottingham Forest at Wembley.
In between those two Cup-final appearances Lineker played for Barcelona for three years following a £2.2 million transfer in 1986.
Leaving Spain, Lineker rejected a more lucrative move to Monaco to return home with Spurs. In his first season back, in 1989-90, scored 24 goals. In 1991-92 he was voted Footballer of the Year for a second time, before moving abroad again, to play out his career in Japan.
Never booked or sent off during his time in England, Lineker's sportsmanship on the field and his polite demeanour off it were factors in his seemingly effortless transition from footballer to media celebrity, as a television host and long-time 'face' of a popular snack food company.