I’m a former England star – I was stunned when I joined Barcelona and was given wine in my pre-match lunch

GARY LINEKER was shocked when he joined Barcelona and found out the team would drink wine pre-match.

The former England striker played for the Catalan giants from 1986 to 1989.

And when Lineker arrived from Everton, he was left stunned by the Spanish drinking culture.

The 62-year-old revealed that players would sit on tables of four and finish a bottle of wine the night before and again in the afternoon with lunch prior to going out at the Nou Camp.

He told the Rest is Football podcast: “I remember we went down, me and Mark Hughes, and we sat at the table, saying: ‘There’s wine on the table, that’s a bit weird’.

“It was the same routine every match. There was a salad put on the table, one of the players would mix that salad with olive oil, vinegar and salt.

“Then we would get our pre-match meal and you’d finish off the bottle between the four of you.

“Hughes and myself just thought ‘imagine this at home’.

“But the reasoning for it is that you’d have a glass-and-a-half each, then you’d have a two or three hour siesta because in those days the earliest you’d play would be five o’clock or later.

“We just could not believe it. It can’t still be a thing now, I don’t imagine it is.”

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Alan Shearer then joked: “I’d imagine half of my Newcastle team having a glass of wine with a pre-match meal – there’s no way they are staying at one glass.

“Honestly, half the time they would have been p***ed.”

Micah Richards also chimed in to say he did similar during his spell with Fiorentina.

He was with the Italian side from 2014 to 2015 and revealed that the whole team would go for a glass of wine in the afternoon following a training session, with the players’ Wags even allowed to join them.

And the night before a match he was also allowed to have a sip of booze.

Richards said: “The lifestyle is completely different to what we are used to and it opened up my eyes.

“People all ask me: ‘Why are you always so happy?’ Now I know how to enjoy life to the max.”

The ex-Manchester City defender, 35, said: “I don’t tell lies, if I was on the bench I was having a bottle to myself.”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk