Before entering the world of football broadcasting, Gary Lineker was one of the Premier League’s most revered strikers, remembered best for his stints with Everton and Tottenham Hotspur and he once named the ‘most annoying’ opponent he ever faced.
Spanning a career in excess of 15 years, the centre forward began at Leicester City before becoming widely renowned as one of the greatest English attackers in football history. But even he, a player who plundered 233 goals at club level, had difficult days at the office.
After hanging up his boots in 1994 while plying his trade for Nagoya Grampus, the 80-cap England international has succeeded in his post-retirement life, all while becoming the face of BBC’s flagship football programme, Match of the Day.
Throughout the peak of his powers, Lineker, now 64, had the displeasure of being marked by the likes of Paul McGrath, David O’Leary and Des Walker – but singled out one player as someone whom he did not relish a battle with.
Alongside his duties for the Beeb, which he has now stepped down from, he’s also become one of the co-hosts of ‘The Rest Is Football’, where he talks all things football alongside Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.
On that show in December 2023, the ex-Barcelona marksman named the ‘most annoying’ player he faced. Richards name-dropped Chelsea icon Didier Drogba before the Leicester-born star singled out Martin Keown, recognised as one of the hardest footballers of the Premier League era.
“I'm going to throw one in here, I only played against him a few times towards the end of my career, but my f*****g god was he annoying, and now I work with him.
He even went as far to admit that he used to get 'pinched' in games by his now-Match of the Day colleague, “A certain Martin Keown! I love Martin to bits now and he's a lovely guy, but my goodness me, playing against him, he pinched you!
"He'd pinch you in your side and stuff like that and he'd be all over you and he was aggressive, and he was slightly insecure and still is to a degree in a very nice way."
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Recalling a funny story which Lee Dixon continues to tell about his former teammate and compatriot, Lineker continued: “He works hard at his job but Lee Dixon always tells the story about I think they were playing a game, and they were about two or three down after 20 minutes.
“Dicko was playing right-back and Martin kept shouting 'Dicko' and in the end he said 'what?' and at 3-0 down he goes 'how am I doing?'”