Gary Lineker was tasked to select his ideal five-a-side line-up of current or past players since the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) began 50 years ago
Gary Lineker has named his all-time 5-a-side team
Gary Lineker has named Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney in his dream five-a-side line-up.
The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) have been celebrating the success of the English game as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations - and they tasked Lineker to choose the best possible five-a-side team using only footballers to have won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award.
Lineker started off including himself in the side - but admitted he was never going to select Match of the Day colleague and Premier League all-time top scorer Alan Shearer. He said: “There’s no way I’ll make anyone else’s team, so I’m definitely picking myself - I’m not picking (Alan) Shearer!”
The former Leicester and Tottenham forward struck over 250 goals in his professional career which spanned for almost two decades. Lineker also spent time at Everton, Barcelona and Nagoya Grampus Eight, while scoring 48 times in 80 appearances for the England national team.
“I never saw myself as a great footballer, but I knew how to score goals,” Lineker said. “I just kept making the runs. It was like mathematics to me.
“It was all about attacking areas and attacking the space. I see (Erling) Haaland do it now, and it’s exactly the same thing. Eventually the ball will go to you and you’ve got an easy strike, so I kind of worked it out.”
Moving on from himself, Lineker chose Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish as his next pick. The Scot scored 172 goals and provided 167 assists for the Reds during his 13-year spell at Anfield. Dalglish won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year in 1982/83 as Liverpool landed the First Division and League Cup double.
Sir Kenny Daglish is a Liverpool legend (
Image:
Getty Images)
Explaining why he selected Dalglish, Lineker said: “I’m going to pick Kenny Dalglish to play up front with me. Him and Gareth Bale, for me, are probably the two best British players in my lifetime. Dalglish was incredible. He was one of the reasons Ian Rush scored so many goals.”
Lineker decided to pick Peter Shilton as his goalkeeper and former Man Utd defender Paul McGrath in defence. The 62-year-old had two final picks to complete his squad - and opted to go for Gerrard as his midfield selection as he branded the ex-Liverpool captain an “unbelievable footballer,” who he “just loved watching him play.”
Rooney rounded off the team as he fended off competition from several big-name forwards, including Robin van Persie, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Shearer. Lineker admitted it was a close call between Rooney and Thierry Henry, who he described as the “probably the two best Premier League forwards that we’ve had.”
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