Gary Lineker

Gary Lineker in 2009

Gary Winston Lineker, OBE (born 30 November, 1960 in Leicester) is a former English international footballer, playing as a striker for Leicester City, Everton, FC Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, and Nagoya Grampus Eight. Since then, he has developed a career as a sports broadcaster for BBC Television.

Quotes

• Football is a simple game, twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.
  • A quote from 1990 cited 28 years later by Finnis, Alex (2018-06-24). Gary Lineker has updated his most famous quote after Germany’s late win over Sweden. iNews.
  • After England were beaten by Germany in the quarter finals of the Italia '90 World Cup.

• I always score one against the Germans.
  • Playing for the MCC against a German XI in a cricket match on 27 August 2002 and scoring a single run before being dismissed.

• There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I'm out of order?
  • A tweet by Lineker on 7 March 2023 in response to home secretary Suella Braverman's plans to stop migrant's crossing the English Channel in small boats.Atkinson, Emily (2023-03-07). What did Gary Lineker say?. The independent.
  • Lineker was suspended by the United Kingdom's BBC as he had made a political comment deemed inappropriate for a presenter. The matter was raised in the British parliament. The BBC's flagship Match of the Day football programme ran in a shorter form than usual for one edition with no commentary as colleagues at the BBC withdrew from presenting football programs for the weekend until Lineker was reinstated.

Unsourced

• (in the build-up to the France-Portugal semi final at the 2006 World Cup) "This is the BBC and we will be completely impartial, so allez les bleus. With me tonight holding their lucky coqs sportifs under the desk are..."
• The best place to watch Wimbledon F.C. is teletext. As you can tell, I dislike Wimbledon. Hate them, even.