Gary Lineker: Football’s Quiet Hero

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Gary Lineker never ever got tired with football, or talking about the sport. He was a quiet realist too, a footballer in a league of his own.

Gary Lineker was football’s quiet hero — a man who had been scoring goals, all his life, or rather at the proverbial drop of a ‘kick,’ ever since he was eight. Lineker scored several of them that he was invited to train with the local side, Leicester City, while still in school. The rest is a cliché — a perpetual part of football history.

Lineker, who is regarded as one of England’s greatest strikers, had a tremendous desire to scoring goals. But, where did that motivating factor come from? Contends Lineker: “The desire is just something you’re born with. It’s something you’ve got, or you haven’t got. I’ve got it, luckily enough.” This wasn’t all — because, the sport’s Mr Nice Guy and England’s golden goal scorer considered goal scoring a nice thing.”It is better to score and win, although without luck you’re nothing.” Lineker was different too. Tolerant, polite and affable: a superstar who “never lost his temper.”What was his forte for goal scoring? In his own words, “The secret to goal scoring is not just pace; not just being in a good side, that all helps, but a kind of clairvoyance.”

Lineker (born November 30, 1960), first played for Leicester City against Oldham, at age 18. Within a few weeks, he became a regular in the side. His goal scoring ability caught the fancy of almost every football fan in England.Lineker, in those formative years, often scored goals without much thinking, or planning, As his reputation soared, he began analysing and taking a fresh look into his merits and possible drawbacks.



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