Lineker began his career at his home town club Leicester City after leaving school.

Lineker began scoring prolifically in the early 1980s, helping Leicester win promotion to the First Division in 1980 and again in 1983.

However he began to break into being a regular starter in 1981 and forging a prolific strike-force alongside Alan Smith, Lineker hit 19 goals in all competitions in the 1981 – 82 season.

England internationals Peter Shilton, Gary Lineker, David Nish, Steve Whitworth and Emile Heskey, as well as Don Revie, who played for and managed England all began their careers with the Foxes.

Lineker was equally talented at both football and cricket.

Lineker currently anchors the English language football coverage for Al Jazeera Sports, which is broadcast throughout much of the Middle East.

However, when " Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life " was adopted as a football chant in the late 1980s, Idle's then neighbour Gary Lineker suggested Idle re-record and release the popular track.

Other famous Slade fans include, English ex-football player Gary Lineker and Welsh football player Nigel Vaughan, whom Lea and Hill visited on Boxing Day, 1989 at the football grounds of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Venables had brought both Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne to Spurs and was a favourite to replace Bobby Robson as England national football team manager when the job became vacant in 1990, but doubts about his probity led him to be passed over in favour of Graham Taylor.

He received great plaudits from football writers who appreciated the unhurried intelligence of his play and unflappable demeanour and was touted by some as a possible replacement for Gary Lineker, who retired from the England team in 1992, although he seemed the absolute opposite of the type of player favoured by manager Graham Taylor.

He was also the most high profile English footballer to move to Spanish football since Gary Lineker had moved to FC Barcelona from Everton in 1986.

Despite his long career, Lineker was never cautioned by a referee for foul play ( never once receiving a yellow or red card ).

In a senior career which spanned 16 years and 567 competitive games, Lineker scored a total of 282 goals at club level.

Lineker ended his career with an injury-plagued spell in Japan's J.

Lineker still helped out on the stall at the height of his playing career during the late 1980s and early 1990s, though usually only in the closed season.

Lineker scored twice and Peter Beardsley once as England went through 3 – 0 and into a quarter final meeting with Argentina, a match which again would ultimately form part of the legend of Shilton's whole career.

Lineker also worked on other programmes at the BBC.

While he was at Everton, they reached the FA Cup final for the third year in a row but they lost 3 – 1 to Liverpool, despite Lineker giving them an early lead when he outpaced Alan Hansen to score.

Lineker scored three hat-tricks for Everton ; at home to Birmingham City in a 4 – 1 league win on 31 August 1985, at home to Manchester City in a 4 – 0 home win on 11 February 1986, and then in the penultimate league game of the season on 3 May 1986, when they kept their title hopes alive with a 6 – 1 home win over Southampton.

After winning the Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Lineker was signed by Barcelona for £ 2, 800, 000.

In what proved to be his last England match, against Sweden at Euro 1992, he was substituted by England coach Graham Taylor, in favour of Arsenal striker Alan Smith, ultimately denying Lineker the chance to equal — or even better — Charlton's record of 49 goals.

It transpired in the case that the article had actually been ghost-written by a journalist at the Sunday Telegraph following a telephone interview with Lineker.

Wright did not make it into the squad for Euro 1992 at the expense of Clough, Gary Lineker of Tottenham Hotspur, Alan Shearer of Southampton and Arsenal team mates Alan Smith and Paul Merson.

Kewell's transfer was highly controversial because it was alleged by former England captain, Gary Lineker, in an article in July 2003 that a significant portion (£ 2, 000, 000 of the £ 5, 000, 000 ) went to Kewell's unregistered agent, Bernie Mandic to ensure that he ended up at Anfield.

The Blues opened the scoring when Gary Lineker outpaced Alan Hansen to shoot past Grobbelaar at the second attempt and held this lead until half-time as Liverpool struggled to find their usual rhythm.

* 20th century famous residents have included Richard Beckinsale, former footballer Gary Lineker, British pop group Five Star who resided at the Stone Court estate, London Road, between 1987 and 1990, Chesney Hawkes, Brian Blessed, Diana Dors and Billy Ocean.

The annual Speech Day, at which boys are awarded various prizes, has been hosted by many famous speakers, including Rory Bremner, Gary Lineker, Henry Olonga, Sir Tim Rice, Sir Roger Bannister OG, Stephen Fry, Lord Coe ( 2007 ), Professor Malcolm Grant ( President and Provost of UCL ) ( 2008 ), Sir Michael Parkinson ( 2009 ), Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson ( 2010 ) and Hugh Dennis OG ( 2012 )

It was only a last-ditch goal from Gary Lineker against Poland that saw England qualify at the expense of the Irish.

During the game, after 60 minutes and with the score at 1 – 1, Taylor substituted Gary Lineker in his final game for England.

Lineker was a great success at the Camp Nou, scoring 21 goals during his first season, including a hat-trick in a 3 – 2 win over Real Madrid.

Lineker spent three years at Barcelona, until Venables brought him back to England with his new club Tottenham Hotspur in 1989.

During his first spell at Newcastle, Beardsley became a regular in the England side and teamed up with striker Gary Lineker, who described Beardsley as " the best partner I could ever have ".

Manager Terry Venables was hoping for him to be a successful strike partner for Gary Lineker, whom he had signed from United's rivals Everton, but Hughes was a disappointment in his only season at Barcelona and was subsequently loaned out to German club Bayern Munich for the 1987 – 88 season, where he regained his form.

He ended the tournament, during which Brazil were memorably eliminated by France at the quarter-final stage, with five goals, placing him second in the Golden Boot rankings behind England ’ s Gary Lineker.

Lineker was born in Leicester to Barry and Margaret Lineker ( both born 1939 ).

Lineker first attended Caldecote Road School ( Caldecote Juniors ), Braunstone in Leicester ( east of the Meridian Centre ) although he lived outside the borough.

Lineker was made a freeman of the City of Leicester ( which entitles him to graze his sheep — should he have any — on Town Hall Square ) in 1995 and he is often referred to as " Leicester's favourite son ".

In October 2002, Lineker backed a £ 5 million bid to rescue his former club Leicester City which recently had gone into administration, describing his involvement as charity rather than an ego trip.

Lineker is now honorary vice-president of Leicester City, along with former players Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton.

The same year, Heskey made a six-figure donation to aid a consortium led by Gary Lineker in their bid to buy-out his former club, Leicester City, who were experiencing financial difficulties.

Both Emile Heskey and Gary Lineker ( Winner of the Golden Boot ) attended the City of Leicester College in Evington, as did former Labour media advisor Alistair Campbell and Dr. Nicholas Shepherd ( Co-founder of the internet ).

The road running through the development is called Lineker Road, after Gary Lineker, one of Leicester City's most famous players.

Then came the arrival of England striker Gary Lineker from Leicester City in the 1985 close season.

The stadium was officially opened by former Leicester striker Gary Lineker on 23 July 2002.

Gary Lineker, the broadcaster and former England captain, recalls the terror he felt when Jock Wallace, then manager of Leicester City, " pinned me against the dressing room wall at half-time and called me a lazy English this and that.

Whereas Lineker had developed into a world class goalscorer after moving from Leicester to Everton ( along with subsequent clubs FC Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur ), Newell's form at Goodison Park was less spectacular as he formed a three-man strikeforce with Graeme Sharp and Tony Cottee, and with three strikers in the first eleven there was little pressure on any of them to score 20 or 30 goals a season.