Gary Lineker: “Gazza was playing tennis with German tourists!”
Hotshot striker turned broadcaster tells us about his England team-mates: from the magic of Gascoigne to the player you'd hate to be around if you lost
In a new FourFourTwo video, Gary Lineker has been giving us the lowdown on his England side, which culminated in a memorable run to the World Cup semi-final in Italy in 1990.
Yet even ahead of such a momentous match, Paul Gascoigne could still find himself distracted. “Even before we played the World Cup semi-final, he was playing tennis with some German tourists on the court - and had to be dragged off by Bobby Robson,” says Lineker of the team’s midfield genius.
However he also praises Gazza as “the most naturally gifted technical footballer that I played with”, while also singling out Chris Waddle and Peter Beardsley for their individual talents.
Despite his superb return of 10 goals across two World Cups, Links cheerily chucks himself under the bus as the “not the best trainer in the world” while also nominating himself as the biggest moaner.
That is, until a far larger figure looms into his mind.“I was pretty good at moaning,” he says. “But then someone like Terry Butcher... You wouldn’t want to lose when Terry was around. He was a fearfully competitive soul.”
Sounds about right Gary. Now hit play on the above to find out who he picks as the fastest England player, the toughest tackler and much more.
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Alex Reid is a freelance journalist and the former digital features editor at FourFourTwo. He has also written for the Guardian, talkSPORT, Boxing News and Sport magazine. Like most Londoners, he is a lifelong supporter of Aberdeen FC. He is deceptively bad in the air for a big man. He has never been a cage fighter.