Lineker claims he was racially abused during his footballing career

Gary Lineker was a top goalscorer during the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. He retired in 1994 with 204 goals in 402 matches and he played for Leicester, Everton, Barcelona, Tottenham and Nagoya Grampus. He also got 77 caps for England and scored 48 times for them. 

Despite his successful career, not everything was rosy for the former player. He revealed in the podcast 'High Performance' that he suffered racist abuse during his career because of his "darkish skin."

"Without being good at sport, life would have been very different for me and I think I would have been bullied at school. I was kind of marginalised that way anyway because I was this tiny geeky kid, with darkish skin and I had pretty much racist abuse although I’m not, I’m as English as they come," Lineker began. 

"Even in professional football I had that a couple of times. I got that kind of nonsense, which was a bit weird," he added. However, he managed to overcome those episodes, something which not everyone can do."

"Other people might not be able to handle that. My greatest virtue was my mental strength. I always had it. It never affected me really," Lineker concluded.