Our Ultimate Football Debates

Match of the Day: Top 10 of Everything

Gary Lineker (Author) Gary Lineker OBE is a broadcaster and a former professional footballer. He holds England's record for goals in FIFA World Cup finals, with 10 scored. He has presented the flagship BBC football programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s. Follow Gary on Twitter @GaryLineker and on Instagram. Alan Shearer (Author) Alan Shearer CBE grew up in Newcastle, leaving home as a teenager to pursue a career in professional football with his first team, Southampton. He went on to reach football stardom, winning the Premier League with Blackburn in 1995, breaking the world transfer record by signing to Newcastle United in 1996 and achieving international success as the Captain of England. Alan also holds the record for most goals scored in Premier League history. Micah Richards (Author) Micah Richards is a former professional footballer and a football pundit who played as both a right back and centre back. He was a Premier League title winner with Manchester City and played for Aston Villa, as well as Fiorentina in Italy's Serie A. Richards remains the youngest ever defender to play for England and is currently a Club ambassador for Manchester City.

Football isn't life or death - it's much more serious than that... 
 
Which players will the fans never forget? Who are the Premier League's best buys? Who were the best link ups in history? 
 
In Match of the Day Top 10 of Everything, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards bring all of the charm, wit and punditry of their hit BBC Sounds podcast onto the page, arguing the toss over their favourite strikers, Premier League managers, shock transfers, cult heroes, hard men, FA Cup Finals, and much, much more. The question is...will you agree with their picks?

Life, Laughs and Football

The ultimate insider’s guide to the beautiful game, written by two of Britain’s most popular sporting figures. Inspired by the #1 podcast.

This is Lineker unleashed. As a non-football nut I didn’t expect to enjoy it, but between laddish anecdotes are passages of sudden tenderness. Lineker recalls deathbed conversations with his father, Barry, a Leicester market trader who’d taken him and his childhood team-mates to matches in his fruit and veg van. The process seems to have acted as a sort of talking therapy for Lineker, opening him up, dislodging memories and reflections, not just about football but his whole life.

Gary Lineker and Danny Baker relate stories both honest and hilarious about the world of football.

Without doubt, it’s one of the funniest books around.

Is there anything Gary Lineker can’t do?

This personal and often hilarious book is the perfect gift for any footie fanatic.

Gary Lineker OBE is a broadcaster and a former professional footballer. He holds England's record for goals in FIFA World Cup finals, with 10 scored. He has presented the flagship BBC football programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s. Follow Gary on Twitter @GaryLineker and on Instagram.

***Includes a new foreword by Gary Lineker about football in lockdown*** 
 
Shortlisted for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 
 
'Lineker is nearly as good a presenter as I was a footballer' DIEGO MARADONA 
'Hilarious, almost as funny as me' ALAN SHEARER 
'This is Lineker unleashed. As a non-football nut I didn't expect to enjoy it, but between laddish anecdotes are passages of sudden tenderness. . . Lineker opens up, dislodging memories and reflections, not just about football but his whole life.' THE TIMES 
_______________________________________________________________ 
'Football is a simple game. 22 players chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end the Germans always win.' 
 
This book is inspired by the stories Danny and I have shared with each other about what life in football is really like: in the dressing room, in the commentary box, on the pitch and - with the appropriate pixellation - in the showers afterwards. 
 
What's it really like to play with Messi? I wouldn't know, but I have starred alongside him in an advert for Walkers crisps. And, well, his performance was world-class. 
 
And what is a life in football really like? You won't learn much from the dull-as-dishwater post-match interviews - it's a world of secrets, superstitions, laughs and personalities, and let me tell you, half of it you won't believe. 
 
I've looked back at my playing days, from England to Leicester, Everton to Barcelona, Tottenham to, er, Nagoya Grampus Eight, and shared the chaotic behind-the-scenes secrets of Match of the Day - and Danny has chipped in with stories from a lifetime following the game as a fan. 
 
From Italia '90 to Leicester's Premier League fairytale, from yellow cards to World Cup trophies (I've never been awarded either), from Gascoigne to Maradona, you'll find it all here - everything you always wanted to know about football, but didn't realise that you did. 
 
Inspired by the No.1 podcast Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors

Gary Lineker (Author) Gary Lineker OBE is a broadcaster and a former professional footballer. He holds England's record for goals in FIFA World Cup finals, with 10 scored. He has presented the flagship BBC football programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s. Follow Gary on Twitter @GaryLineker and on Instagram. Danny Baker (Author) Danny Baker is an author, comedy writer, journalist and Radio DJ. He is the author of the bestselling memoirs Going to Sea in a Sieve, Going Off Alarming and, most recently, Going on the Turn. He still lives in south-east London. Follow Danny on Twitter @prodnose

***Includes a new foreword by Gary Lineker about football in lockdown*** 
 
Shortlisted for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 
 
'Lineker is nearly as good a presenter as I was a footballer' DIEGO MARADONA 
'Hilarious, almost as funny as me' ALAN SHEARER 
'This is Lineker unleashed. As a non-football nut I didn't expect to enjoy it, but between laddish anecdotes are passages of sudden tenderness. . . Lineker opens up, dislodging memories and reflections, not just about football but his whole life.' THE TIMES 
_______________________________________________________________ 
'Football is a simple game. 22 players chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end the Germans always win.' 
 
This book is inspired by the stories Danny and I have shared with each other about what life in football is really like: in the dressing room, in the commentary box, on the pitch and - with the appropriate pixellation - in the showers afterwards. 
 
What's it really like to play with Messi? I wouldn't know, but I have starred alongside him in an advert for Walkers crisps. And, well, his performance was world-class. 
 
And what is a life in football really like? You won't learn much from the dull-as-dishwater post-match interviews - it's a world of secrets, superstitions, laughs and personalities, and let me tell you, half of it you won't believe. 
 
I've looked back at my playing days, from England to Leicester, Everton to Barcelona, Tottenham to, er, Nagoya Grampus Eight, and shared the chaotic behind-the-scenes secrets of Match of the Day - and Danny has chipped in with stories from a lifetime following the game as a fan. 
 
From Italia '90 to Leicester's Premier League fairytale, from yellow cards to World Cup trophies (I've never been awarded either), from Gascoigne to Maradona, you'll find it all here - everything you always wanted to know about football, but didn't realise that you did. 
 
Inspired by the No.1 podcast Behind Closed Doors

Gary Lineker

Ivor Baddiel

50 Times Football Changed the World

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