Retro Gary Lineker Shirt – The Clean Striker Who Conquered Europe

Gary Winston Lineker's story begins in his native Leicester, where he broke through at Filbert Street in the early 1980s and fired the Foxes to promotion from the Second Division before winning the club's first top-flight Golden Boot in 1984-85 with 24 goals. His form earned him a move to Howard Kendall's reigning champions Everton in 1985, and although the Toffees narrowly missed a league and cup double, Lineker still plundered 40 goals in all competitions and was crowned PFA and FWA Player of the Year. Then came Mexico 86 – the tournament that made him a global name. His hat-trick against Poland, goals against Paraguay and the consolation header in the quarter-final defeat to Maradona's Argentina secured him the Golden Boot with six goals, more than any Englishman before or since at a World Cup. Barcelona came calling that summer under Terry Venables, and Lineker delivered a hat-trick in his first El Clásico victory over Real Madrid, winning the Copa del Rey in 1988 and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1989 alongside a young Pep Guardiola. Returning to England with Tottenham in 1989, he added the 1991 FA Cup to his trophy cabinet, scoring in almost every round. His career ended with an adventurous final chapter at Grampus Eight in Japan. For England he scored 48 goals in 80 caps, one short of Bobby Charlton's record, and came agonisingly close to glory at Italia 90, where his penalty equaliser against West Germany briefly looked like it might send England into the final. Throughout it all, he never received a single yellow or red card – a fair-play record that remains staggering.

Lineker was shaped by the men around him, and his career reads like a who's who of 1980s football royalty. At Everton he terrorised defences alongside Trevor Steven, Peter Reid and the imperious Graeme Sharp, with Howard Kendall orchestrating the chaos from the dugout. The Mexico 86 squad gave him Peter Beardsley as his ideal foil – a partnership Bobby Robson perfected, with Beardsley dropping deep while Lineker lurked on the shoulder. At Barcelona he learned from Terry Venables, the manager who signed him and later coached him at Tottenham, forging one of the great player-manager relationships of the era. He shared a Camp Nou dressing room with Andoni Zubizarreta, Bernd Schuster and a young Guardiola, and spent training sessions trying to read the mind of Johan Cruyff when the Dutchman took charge in 1988. His great rival was Diego Maradona, who broke English hearts in 1986 but whose genius Lineker has always publicly admired. At Spurs he fed off the passing of Paul Gascoigne in Gazza's most magical season, culminating in the 1991 FA Cup final. Together, these figures forged the composed, ruthless finisher the world remembers.

A retro Gary Lineker shirt comes in some of the most beautiful designs football has ever produced. The royal blue Everton 1985-86 Umbro shirt with the NEC sponsor is arguably the most coveted, an elegant V-neck that he wore during his 40-goal season. The England Admiral and Umbro kits from Mexico 86, with their pale blue pinstripes and subtle Three Lions crest, are iconic – any retro Gary Lineker shirt from that summer in Mexico is a grail item, particularly the pale sky-blue away shirt worn against Argentina. Barcelona's Meyba kits from 1986 to 1989, featuring the bold blaugrana stripes and no shirt sponsor (a Camp Nou tradition that would only change years later), are perhaps the most romantic of all, instantly recognisable and endlessly collectable. Then there is the Tottenham Hummel shirt with its distinctive chevrons and the Holsten sponsor, immortalised by the 1991 FA Cup run. His Leicester shirts from the early 1980s with the Ind Coope sponsor represent the humblest and most nostalgic side of the Lineker story. Each one captures a chapter of a unique career.