Body + Soul 7
ROBERT WILSON FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGESI would take the knee
if I was playing today
Gary Lineker talks
to Andrew Billen
about Twitter
battles, the cup finals
and his forthcoming
60th birthday
I
n his career, Gary Lineker earned 80
England caps, but played in just two
FA Cup finals, both memorable. He
scored in the first, but Everton, his
team, lost. The next time, with Spurs,
they won the cup, but his goal was
controversially declared offside.
He is hazier about how many FA Cup fi-
nals he has anchored. He has been the
BBC’s chief football presenter since 1999,
but ITV sometimes held the live coverage
rights. Research reveals that today’s will be
his 13th. It will certainly be his weirdest.
“The final’s going to be really odd: a cup
final with no fans. I found it very surreal
being at Wembley for the semi-final. A
goal goes in and there’s not a murmur
apart from a few shrieks from the players.”
There were moments this year when
Lineker, who is speaking to me by phone
from the back of a car heading towards
BBC Sports HQ in Salford, feared there
would be no more football this season, let
alone an FA Cup final. He was strongly in
favour of a resumption, partly because
cancelling the season would be “terribly
unfair” (especially to the likely Premier
League winners, Liverpool) and partly
because what would you do if there was a
second wave? “Abandon a second season?”
As it is, Match of the Day’s figures have held
up well since its return in June and Lineker
will be on BT Sport this month presenting
the resumed Champions League tourna-
ment. He’ll manage a couple of weeks’ hol-
iday after that before the English season
kicks off again in mid-September.
In football’s absence, however, a strange
thing happened. After a wobbly start,
footballers’ reputations soared, pleasing
Lineker who thinks that as a group footbal-
lers have been maligned. “They’re quite an
easy target,” he says. “Do people have a
pop at wealthy singers, wealthy basketball
players, wealthy motor racing drivers,
wealthy businessmen, tycoons, newspaper
owners? No, they don’t, but if a young,
working-class lad actually does quite well
for himself at football — I don’t think with
most of the population — there’s some
kind of reluctance to accept that.”
He is thrilled by the Manchester United
player Marcus Rashford’s campaign to
continue free school meals into the sum-
mer holidays. “He’s a remarkable young
man, incredibly mature. He’s only 22. To
go on that campaign was bold enough, but
to actually get the decision reversed was
fabulous. A lot of these young players have
a voice and a platform, and it’s lovely to see
them using it in a really positive way. I
think football in general has come out of
these tough times with great credit. All the
teams and captains got together to make a
plan to raise and give money universally to
NHS charities and they’re coming to-
gether again around Black Lives Matter.”
Would he take the knee if he were still
playing? “Of course I would. I think one of
the great things about football is that it’s a
fine example of different ethnicities and
colours and religions coming together.
You don’t sit in a dressing room and look
around and say, ‘He’s black. He’s white.
He’s Catholic. He’s Muslim.’ You just think,
‘Well, he’s good with his right foot.’ ” Linek-
er discovered his public voice in recent
years. It began with speaking out againstHis father, who ran a fruit and veg stall, was
different: fiery and a big card player. His
son inherited the gambler’s instinct. “Scor-
ing goals is about gambling. You gamble on
the space and where the ball’s going to go.
If you gamble right, you’ve got a great
chance to score. People who don’t score are
the ones that wait to see where the ball’s
going to go. That’s invariably too late.”
Sometimes the odds do overwhelm.
George, his firstborn, was diagnosed with
leukaemia as a baby. “They were pretty
blunt. They told us he had between a 10
and 20 per cent chance of making it.” No
amount of innate cool helped then. “That
was terrifying. That’s a different kind of
experience altogether; obviously very
difficult and very worrying. But we were
one of the lucky ones that beat the odds
and came through it. He’s nearly 29 now, in
great shape.” What sort of father was he? “I
wish I could remember. I was exasperated
most of the time trying to keep them from
fighting each other. We had four boys who
would fight like something else. It was awhirlwind, but a lot of fun. I’m a loving
father. I’m fairly forgiving, non-judgmen-
tal, but I try to guide them.”
He admits that his divorce from his first
wife was not easy, but it helped that there
was no “venom”. Still, children don’t like it,
do they? “They don’t like it at the time, but
they adapt. As long as you don’t stand there
blaming the other parent in front of them
and are there for them, they’re fine. It’s so
common now. I’m not sure we’re supposed
to be with the same person for ever
anyway. I had two great marriages and I
wouldn’t change a thing.” His second, to
Danielle Bux, a model, lasted six years, but
ended when she accepted that he did not
want a child. They still talk most days.
“She’s my best mate. I’m happy now, she’s
happy now, and it’s worked out as wonder-
fully as it could possibly work out.” Bux has
since had a baby with a new partner.
Upturning many assumptions, Lineker
told the Times writer Janice Turner last
year that he was “not massively into sex”
and hardly dated. “I got a lot of stick for
that. It was the front-page headline! Oh
blimey, did I get some texts that morning!”
Yet still no girlfriend? “No, I quite like
where I am at the moment. I’m single. I do
what I want. I’ve got a lot of friends, both
male and female, with whom I socialise.
My boys are always around — perhaps
because I cook a lot now. I’m not looking
for another permanent relationship at the
moment, but you never know in life. I’m in
a good place, I’m quite content.”
He must count himself a lucky man, I
say. “I absolutely totally accept,” he says,
“that I’ve been very fortunate in life.”
The FA Cup final airs today from 4.30pm
on BBC One and BBC iPlayerGary Lineker’s
perfect weekend
South of France or seaside staycation?
South of France, purely for the reason
that I can go there and not be recognised
Michelin-starred restaurant or
a pub lunch?
Michelin star. Easy
Zoom call or a landline?
I don’t think I’ve used a landline for years
Suited and booted or slob out?
Slob out. Suited and booted looks all
right, but it’s uncomfortable, isn’t it?
Kick around in the park or a
Joe Wicks workout?
I’m not sure Joe Wicks’s workouts
are hard enough for me, but I can’t do
a kick-around in the park any more
I couldn’t get through lockdown
without...
My cookingCancel culture?
It’s just silly.
Everyone
makes
mistakes,
everyone
corruption in his sport’s governing body,
Fifa, and he proceeded to tweet sympathy
for refugees entering Europe, then his
support for the EU remain campaign. He
stood up for Emily Maitlis when the pre-
senter was in trouble for her anti-Dominic
Cummings monologue on Newsnight, but
he doesn’t express his views on air, only on
social media. He is just surprised at the
vituperation that is heaped on it.
“What I don’t understand is how you can
get abusive and angry at someone because
they have a slightly different opinion from
you. I’ve got a number of friends who have
different political beliefs to me and we get
on very well. It doesn’t affect our relation-
ship one iota.” Then there is “cancel cul-
ture”, where a “wrong” opinion, expressed
however many years ago, threatens career
termination. “That’s ridiculous. There are
obviously limits, if it starts being highly
racist, say... But it’s all very silly. Everyone
makes mistakes, everyone. We all do
things that perhaps we regret.”
Lineker will be 60 in November. Is he
dreading it? “I don’t like the sound of it.
It’s horrible: 20, 20, 20. I’d sooner be
approaching 40, but they do say 60 is thenew 50.” He was disheartened when last
year he returned to his native Leicester to
open a clubhouse named after him and
was told by a ten-year-old that his grandad
had played with him.
He does not look his age and he works at
that. His home in southwest London has a
gym, where he went almost every day dur-
ing lockdown. He has had the same per-
sonal trainer for 20 years and his weight is
what it was as a player: 12st 5lb. “I don’t
really have much of a problem with weight.
It’s just difficult to bulk up as you get older.”
He still, lucratively, advertises Walkers
Crisps, something that last year led him in-
to a spat with his old friend Piers Morgan,
who accused him of enabling obesity.
Does he actually eat them? “I love crisps,
yes, and hopefully I’m a perfect example of
how you can have a packet of crisps every
now and again. It’s all about a balanced di-
et. They’re potatoes, for crying out loud!”
Not much bothers Lineker for long. That,
he thinks, is partly because top-division
football thickens the skin and partly
because he inherited his mother’s calm.
“From my experience, most strikers have a
kind of very calm, ice-cold temperament.”