Gary Lineker has revealed that he was 'tapped up' by Barcelona while competing in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where he won the Golden Boot as the tournament's top scorer. The former Everton striker also attributed the club's failure to retain the league title that season to the mysterious disappearance of his 'lucky boots' before a crucial match.
Lineker's Barcelona Approach During the World Cup
Speaking on the podcast 'Lineker and Baker Behind Closed Doors' in 2018, Lineker recounted how Barcelona made contact with him while he was at Everton. 'I kind of got tapped up by Barcelona when I was at Everton. It was around the time of the World Cup,' he said. 'They'd got in touch with the club and the club did tell me and then it went a little bit quiet. I said to my agent, 'the World Cup is on now, I can't have that disturbing me', so off we went to Mexico.'
Lineker, who joined Everton from Leicester City for £800,000, scored 40 goals in 57 appearances during the 1985/86 season before moving to Barcelona for £2.8 million. During the World Cup, after a slow start with no goals in the first two games, he scored a hat-trick against Poland and two against Paraguay, becoming the tournament's top scorer at that stage.
He went on to score six goals in total, including a consolation strike against Argentina in the quarter-finals. Although Diego Maradona scored twice for Argentina, Lineker's tally was enough to secure the Golden Boot, finishing one goal ahead of Brazil's Careca and Spain's Emilio Butragueno.
The Phone Call That Changed Everything
Lineker described how, in an era before mobile phones, he received a call at his hotel in Monterrey. 'A call got put through to me and it was from my agent. He said, 'I know you said not to disturb you at all under any circumstances during the World Cup if there's any interest from any club whatsoever but Barcelona have been on and they've basically said you've got to agree to sign now or they're going to walk away.' Lineker responded, 'Well, go back to tell them, if they want me now, they'll want me at the end of the World Cup – it's too important.'
The Mystery of the Missing Lucky Boots
Lineker also blamed Everton's near-miss in the 1985/86 league title race on his lucky boots going missing. Everton won the league in 1985 and 1987 but were edged out by Liverpool in 1986, who also beat them 3-1 in the FA Cup final. 'I had a pair of lucky boots. I used to go through several pairs a season but I couldn't stop scoring – it was like a goal a game building up to the World Cup in 1986,' Lineker said.
'I was at Everton and we were top of the league. There were three games left: It was Oxford away then we had to play Southampton at home and West Ham at home to finish. We were just ahead of Liverpool but we had to win all three to guarantee winning the league. We played at Oxford and we arrived and the skip came full of the boots and my lucky boots weren't in it.'
Forced to borrow a teammate's boots that were a size too big, Lineker missed several chances and Everton lost 1-0. 'It cost us the league title,' he said. 'I got my boots back for the next game and scored a hat-trick against Southampton and two in the last match with West Ham to finish with 30 league goals for the season.'
The boots, now worn and damaged, were sent to Adidas for repair ahead of the World Cup. 'They patched them together and I won the Golden Boot. Even during the World Cup they fell apart again but we had them sent off and specially repaired again and they're now in the Adidas museum in Germany,' Lineker added.
