Gary Lineker

Gary Lineker held England's all-time World Cup scoring record for over three decades, with 10 goals across the 1986 and 1990 tournaments, six of them in 1986 alone, a tally that won him the Golden Boot as England reached the quarter-finals in a match remembered chiefly for Diego Maradona's two goals. He added four more in Italia 90 as England reached the semi-finals before losing to West Germany on penalties. At the 2026 World Cup, Harry Kane finally surpassed Lineker's career record outright, reaching 14 World Cup goals, four clear of Lineker's tally. Lineker's single-tournament record of six goals from 1986, previously matched by Kane's own six-goal haul in 2018, was in turn broken by Jude Bellingham's seven goals at the same 2026 tournament, the most any England player has scored at one World Cup.

As a player, Lineker was one of England's most natural finishers. He earned 80 caps and scored 48 international goals, the second-highest England tally at the time of his retirement. His club career spanned Leicester City, Everton, Barcelona (where he worked under Johan Cruyff), Tottenham Hotspur and Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan. After retiring in 1994, he built a parallel career as a broadcaster, presenting Match of the Day on the BBC from 1999 to 2025, the longest tenure of any MOTD presenter. He Left the BBC in the summer of 2025 following a prolonged dispute over his social media activity.

Lineker occupies a rare dual space in English football: a playing legend whose statistical records have become touchstones and a public voice whose opinions on matters beyond the game have periodically created controversy. Both of his World Cup scoring records, career and single-tournament, stood for decades before finally falling within weeks of each other during the same 2026 tournament, to Kane and Bellingham respectively.