GARY LINEKER was famously never booked during his football career – but that didn’t stop him from engaging in the dark arts.
The England legend has admitted he somehow avoided a yellow at Euro 1992 after “stamping” on an opponent’s toe.
Lineker played almost 600 professional games in a career spanning 16 years.
The 63-year-old was never cautioned and in 1990 was honoured with the Fifa Fair Play Award.
But in a recent episode of the The Rest Is Football podcast. Lineker admitted how close he came to that famous record disappearing.
Discussing his toughest defensive battles with co-hosts Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, he said: “Mine would probably be a defender from France called Basile Boli.
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“I remember playing in the Euros and he was marking me from corners but he wasn’t just marking me. He was giving me a bear hug.
“Not in a romantic way, in the way that I couldn’t breathe and he was squeezing.
“He was just arms around me, and this is obviously before VAR, and he just held me and held me.
“So he did this about two or three corners, whatever we had, and I said to the ref ‘I mean come on’.”
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Lineker revealed he finally snapped and gave Boli a swift response.
He continued: “Eventually I thought ‘sod this’ and I stamped on his toe.
“You could get away with something like that but it was only so I could breathe.
“So I think it was self-defence in some ways.”
Earlier in the conversation, Shearer revealed his own tussle with Arsenal colossus Tony Adams.
The former Newcastle star overlooked Man Utd’s Roy Keane as his toughest opponent, despite their infamous 2001 dust-up at St James Park.
Forgotten England stars could benefit from Tuchel appointment
WITH Thomas Tuchel announced as the next England manager, a few forgotten stars might be hopeful of a return to the international set up.
The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager usually uses a 3-4-3 formation.
That could provide an opening for Mason Mount, who’s not been involved in the England set-up since the World Cup in 2022.
The now Manchester United star enjoyed his most successful spell under Tuchel while the pair were at Stamford Bridge.
Tuchel could also offer lifelines to other previously capped players such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Eric Dier.
RLC has excelled since his move to AC Milan and with England struggling to find a partner for Rice, he could be the surprise answer.
Meanwhile, Dier played for Tuchel at Bayern Munich as part of a back-three last season.
The defender did enough to convince the club to make his loan move permanent after he had fallen out of favour at Tottenham.
Click here to see the full England XI who could play under Tuchel.
Shearer said: “[My toughest opponent] would be Tony Adams.
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“I remember walking off Highbury once and had seven stitches in my lip, right up the middle and a broken nose.
“That was a decent battle, yeah.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
