Football journalist and esteemed writer Chris Evans has just released a fantastic new biography of Gary Lineker.
We are delighted to be able to share an exclusive extract of the book courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing.
‘Gary Lineker: A Portrait of a Football Icon’ is available to purchase from Bloomsbury and from all good book sellers.
6 June 1986, Mexico
‘Questions were coming and Lineker knew some of them would be about him.’
The browbeaten striker looked forlornly to the floor, the whistles of derision ringing in his ears. The stadium may only have been partially full of travelling England fans but the seething frustration was unmistakable as their emotion poured on to the pitch.
Lining the sparse terraces draped in Union Flags, the ragtag collection of supporters – many of them shirtless – got as close to the pitch as possible to spew their thoughts at their own players. England’s raucous band of followers had proudly sung about backing their team ‘over land and sea’ only two hours earlier, but the tide had turned after what they’d witnessed.
The excesses of earlier in the day were now in plain sight. The vitriol normally saved for rival fans and players was raining down on their own countrymen instead, like volleys of friendly fire. Nobody was spared. Least of all the normally sharp-shooting marksman whose run without scoring for his country had stretched to yet another match.
He was pouring with sweat, white shirt and tight blue shorts drenched as a sign of his efforts, but Gary Lineker hadn’t seen any fruits for his labours. Neither had his Three Lions teammates, much to the ire of the England contingent in the stands.
The next day’s newspapers would describe the performance as a ‘disaster’, a ‘disgrace’, a ‘day of shame’. England had been tepid. Toothless. Benign.
Two matches into the 1986 World Cup and England had failed to win a game or even score a single goal. If that run stretched into a third match, then a talented squad would be on the next plane home. There, they’d be greeted by the ferocity they’d lacked so far in Mexico; an unforgiving crowd of fans would make their dissatisfaction known.
If the several thousand angry supporters in Mexico were making their feelings heard, the millions more at home watching grainy images that proclaimed ‘Inglaterra 0’ for the second match running would be even louder.
The post-mortem had started even before Bobby Robson’s men were dead and buried. If they got a win against Poland in England’s final group game, they’d still progress to the last-16 of the competition, but listening to the pundits on TV, radio and in newspapers, you’d think that another underwhelming display was a foregone conclusion.
Questions were coming and Lineker knew some of them would be about him. The striker had been in irresistible form domestically all season, but his latest blank in an England shirt had meant he’d now gone six international matches without a goal. How could a forward who had plundered 40 goals for Everton in the past season look so impotent when playing for his country?
Featured image courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing.
Callum McFadden 