Gary Lineker names two Leicester City icons in favourite Premier League players ever.
Gary Lineker will step down from Match of the Day after the final day of the Premier League season.
Gary Lineker has named his favourite 11 players in Premier League history before signing off from Match of the Day – and two Foxes heroes make the cut.
Leicester City fan and former player Lineker, 64, will step down after 26 years hosting the BBC’s iconic football highlights show after tonight’s edition.
Before stepping down, the Premier League asked Lineker to list his favourite players. Lineker has plumped for ‘beautiful’ players who have given him joy, so it’s a list full of attacking talents rather than great goalkeepers or hard-nosed defenders.
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The Premier League’s all-time top scorer Alan Shearer, who is a good friend of Lineker’s, unsurprisingly makes the cut. Fellow goal machines Thierry Henry, Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney are also in.
Then there’s Mohamed Salah, Gareth Bale, Eden Hazard, Steven Gerrard and Kevin De Bruyne.
But Lineker couldn’t resist a nod to Leicester’s 2016 title-winning team. Riyad Mahrez made 28 goal contributions and won the PFA Player of the Year award that season to earn adulation from Lineker.
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Lineker said: “Not just for what he did at Leicester but also Manchester City – I think they’ve really missed him since he left. What a beautiful footballer, what a bargain as well, he hardly cost any money. And his skinny little legs!
“He was one of the big four for Leicester when they won the league – Vardy was another one, [N’Golo] Kante and Kasper Schmeichel in goal, that spine, they were incredible, well, Mahrez wasn’t part of the spine, he was wide.
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“When he first started, you thought ‘Crikey, this kid looks like he can play’, and by the time he left us [Leicester] he was wonderful. More than anything else, it was [because of] his first touch, he brought it down like it was always a feather landing on his foot. I’ve never known anyone with such a touch, he’s right up there with the likes of – not his overall ability, but in terms of his first touch – any of the players that you can think of.”
And, to the surprise of nobody, Jamie Vardy makes the cut. The Foxes’ iconic number nine will leave the club this summer after 500 appearances and 200 goals.
“My Leicester bias obviously, but it’s for what he’s done at Leicester, coming to the club when he was in his mid-20s, [costing] a million quid. He’s just left, he’s just finished for Leicester and he’s been incredible. Goalscoring machine. To score 200 goals in 500 games in all competitions, it’s a hell of an achievement at a club that is generally a yo-yo club. Most of our [Leicester] history is in the top flight but often in the second tier – and that’s where we are going now! I think the fact that Leicester have been relegated twice since they won the league actually confirms the miracle that it was, and he [Vardy] was obviously a massive part of that, and in that [title-winning] season, he broke Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record. It was incredible.”
N’Golo Kante didn’t make the list, but the French midfielder received an honourable mention from Lineker.
“I’m not going to go for that kind of player, I’m going for the beautiful players and that’s the reason why Kante’s not in there,” he said.
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