“CIGARETTES AFTER SEX,”
says Gary Lineker with a schoolboy’s mischief, to a room full of people at London Bridge.
FourFourTwo have ventured into the capital to see England’s fourth-highest goalscorer and Alan Shearer (joint-seventh) at a Spotify Supper gig, and Lineker has just been asked on stage what represents his guilty pleasure, in a musical context at least. An American dream pop band is his answer.
Asked the very same question, Shearer responds a little more conventionally. “Lionel Richie,” he says. If Lionel wrote songs about creosoting fences, no ceiling – for dancing or otherwise – would have been safe.
Lineker and Shearer have known each other for a long time. Thirty-one years ago they were England team-mates, both finding the net on the night Shearer made his debut for the Three Lions at home to France. Several months later, Lineker’s glorious international career came to an end after an infamous penalty miss against Brazil, then a miserable group-stage exit for Graham Taylor’s men at Euro 92. That proved the deadly duo’s only tournament together.
Nearly 10 years Lineker’s junior, Shearer would follow his future BBC colleague as the nation’s leading man and captain, before joining him in front of the cameras in 2006. The firm friends are now starring in a new podcast together, called The Rest Is Football, alongside another Match of the Day regular in Micah Richards.
Once their on-stage Q&A has concluded, the two England striking legends sidle over to FFT, ready to recount their best moments from three decades as pals…
FFT: You’ve worked together at the BBC for 17 years, and known each other for even longer. What’s your favourite memory?
The first time we came across each other was playing on opposite teams, Southampton vs Tottenham. The first time we got together would have been February 1992, for my
