“I hadn’t reached puberty yet,” Gary Lineker says, cracking up. Then he stops and adds: “It’s true, I’m not lying. I used to hide in the showers”. Talk has turned, inevitably, to Lamine Yamal, the school kid who stands before England’s hopes of winning a first trophy since 1966, what their former captain calls his “lifetime’s ambition” as a player and broadcaster, and has everyone asking the same question: what were you doing at 16? “I had just joined Leicester City as an apprentice,” Lineker recalls. Which isn’t bad, and beats trying to blag your way into pubs with fake ID, but isn’t this. And this, he says, is “unfathomable”.
Lineker has watched Euro 2024 from in front of the Brandenburg Gate and describes the tournament as one where “the fans were the highlight, showing human beings can get on even when they’re tribal”, as well as one that “started well” but got a “bit turgid” late in the group stages and was lit up by Spain, Germany, Austria and Turkey. “Teams playing brave, attacking football tended to be successful, which is encouraging,” Lineker says, but it has been a “cautious, mixed” Euros, during which he infamously described England v Denmark as “shit” – which is not, he stresses, the same as saying England are. Now, though, a competition with a “flawed” group format has “the dream final”.
“I haven’t actually been to a game yet, but I’m going to the final,” Lineker says, laughing. “Big Day. I’ll do a John Terry. Put the England shirt on and get on that stage and lift the trophy.”
Not if Spain have anything to do about it, and they are some opponent. “I love their approach, the way they play the game,” Lineker says. “I love the way they are fearless, push the wingers high, and are aggressive with the press. They were much the better team against France and have been in most games. They’ve won all six, without needing penalties. There are good players right through the side. Pedri, [Dani] Olmo. The two wingers have been incredible. [Álvaro] Morata sacrifices himself for the side: I like his movement. Rodri has been the world’s best defensive midfielder for a couple of years at least. I suspect he will be player of the tournament ... unless the 16-year-old wins it. Lamine Yamal blows my mind. To do the sort of stuff he is doing at his age is incredible.”
This is a kid – who, it should be pointed out, turns 17 on Saturday – that “has the aroma of a genius” in the words of the former Argentinian international and broadcaster Diego Latorre. Lineker laughs. “I haven’t got close enough to him to have a good sniff. From my experience of teenage boys – and I have four of them – they don’t smell too good, but I’ve never seen a 16-year-old like this,” he says.
“I remember the emergence of Wayne Rooney. You could tell he was special but even he didn’t do this. Pelé scored two in a World Cup final but he was 17, nearly 18. Even [Lionel] Messi didn’t really emerge internationally until his late teens. What we’re seeing here is something very, very special. How special, we will have to wait and see. To do what he is doing: I can’t quite get my head around it.”
“I was 18 at Leicester and very conscious of being a kid,” Lineker adds. “I wasn’t joking about puberty. I really did hide in the showers and stuff. I didn’t feel like a man. It was quite hard. I scored goals but it wasn’t until I was 21, 22 that I started to feel comfortable in that environment. At 16?! And it’s not: ‘This kid has talent, let’s try him.’ No. He has played consistently, as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
“I’ve not seen anything like this. Messi is from another planet and I don’t think you want to put that [comparison] on him, but there’s no question that if Lamine keeps his feet on the ground and doesn’t have serious injuries, he is going to be very special indeed. He already is: if you judge the players at this tournament and age is nothing to do with it, he would be top three or four. At 16 … he’s a child! Some kids live up to the expectations, a lot don’t. But with this kind of talent, I would be surprised if we don’t see some kind of greatness.”
All of which doesn’t sound good for England. “Well, it might help England playing against a team that are in form and flying,” Lineker suggests. “There could be more space than in other games where they’ve come across a lot of low blocks. Reaching the final is an extraordinary achievement. And England have had a bit of Real Madrid about them, haven’t they? That thing of finding a way. The [Jude] Bellingham overhead kick against Slovakia, the penalties despite [historically] not having a great shootout record, scoring at the end in the semi. That’s probably not something we’re accustomed to.”
It’s not something that looked likely either; Euro 2024 didn’t start well for England and Lineker said so. His criticism of the Denmark game brought a response from England captain Harry Kane, who said that former players should show “responsibility” and remember that they had been there too. Have you spoken to him? “I don’t have Harry’s number,” Lineker says, pausing to think. “Actually, have I ever met him? I don’t think I have. I don’t think I’ve ever come face to face with him. Alan [Shearer] has his number and might have messaged him.
“I got shafted a bit with that. I never said that either Harry Kane or England were shit. I listened back to make sure. I said ‘it’ was shit, ‘it’ being the game. But it goes to Harry as ‘Gary Lineker says you were shit’, which is a bit naughty. But I think these guys get it. It was the same when I played. They said: ‘Jimmy Greaves says you’re not the same since you had hepatitis.’ It was more that I was getting on a bit and my legs were going. He probably had a point. We’re paid to give our honest opinion; you can’t bullshit people. And if it is not very good, then it is not very good. We would love to enthuse about wonderful, expansive England performances but that ain’t easy. We know that.
“Harry’s movement has been a little stilted but he still scored three times because he’s one of the best finishers I’ve ever seen. Even his penalty was brilliant, right in the corner. He has huge attributes. But if you have a box of four in midfield you don’t want your striker dropping into that box because it becomes too crowded, easy to defend. I have massive respect for him. I love him: he’s one of England’s greatest ever footballers, our greatest goalscorer. But there’s nothing wrong with him not playing the whole 90 minutes and you have a great option with someone like Ollie Watkins whose game is about running behind.”
Then there’s the team’s other superstar. “The team has laboured a little bit, they were quite deep, they didn’t have the balance and I think Jude Bellingham suffered a bit because of that,” Lineker says. “He was never going to keep scoring the amount of goals he did in the first half of the season because he’s not really that player: personally, I think he’s a No 8, a box to box midfielder. Has he been the star of the tournament? No. But he has had really big moments, he has been better since the system changed, and he has that incredible winners’ mentality. They’re in the final and he’s been integral to making that happen.
“They have not really flowed that much but the last two games have been better, there has been a togetherness and they have found magic moments. Often that is what football is about. They have gradually improved; that’s much better that than starting well and fading. You do enough to get through and keep going and hopefully find your form. And I think that is sort of what’s happened.
“The point is, it’s not easy. And we know that. In 1990 [at the World Cup], we reached the semi final. But against the Republic of Ireland [in the opening game] it was dross. In the third game against Egypt we were poor but got through. Belgium was tight. We were losing to Cameroon with eight minutes to go. We would have got absolutely destroyed if we’d lost that. But we found a way. There are obvious similarities to now. Alan said the same about Euro 96: against Switzerland they were really poor; Scotland missed a penalty. That’s tournament football. It is bloody difficult. Then losing on penalties was heartbreaking. When you go out, it’s just horrendous.
“I don’t think we’ve always had the best luck in tournaments, but this time maybe we have. Particularly with the penalty in the semi-final – I thought that was incredibly harsh. I think of the Hand of God in ‘86, hitting the inside of the post against Germany in 1990, Frank Lampard’s one that was over the line [in 2010], the quarter-final in Qatar where there was a clear foul on [Bukayo] Saka before they [France] scored and a clear penalty on him that wasn’t given.”
Years of payback for 1966, perhaps? In the German national football museum in Dortmund, there is an exhibit dedicated to that Geoff Hurst moment, with visitors invited to vote whether it was a goal. The latest tally is 52%-48% in favour of no. “I’m glad they have got over it, anyway”, Lineker says, laughing. “I was only five, I don’t remember it. But that’s what it takes sometimes. You need a bit of luck.
“Losing the shootout three years ago hurt, but I think having that experience helps. This is the first time the England men’s team have played in a major final abroad and there is a lot of affection for the team. They’re a really likable bunch of talented young men. If they keep knocking on the door, one will open.
“I’m really pleased for Gareth [Southgate], too. I would imagine this is his last tournament. I think mentally Qatar took a lot out of him. But if it is, what a way to go. Whatever happens now he will be hugely respected. He has given the country so much pleasure. The team was in a mess when he took over and now they have challenged four tournaments in a row: a semi, a final, a quarter, another final. If he wins, he can walk off into the sunset, pick up his medal, collect his knighthood and everyone will love him for ever.”
Lineker watched the semi-final on the other channel. “It was ITV’s turn,” he says. “And they do tend to lose on ITV. But they won and there was much cheering and a few glasses of … Rioja, actually. We’ll be at the final. If we win, I’ll be elated.
“It will be very hard against Spain. It’s just about getting over the line now, that’s all that matters. It was my lifetime ambition to win a trophy with England as a player, which didn’t quite happen, and to cover it as a broadcaster. We went very close three years ago and it could happen now; if not, I’m running out of time. I’m hopeful. It’s my ambition to utter the words: ‘England have won the Euros.’”
