A City reborn: Leicester find that the old boy done good

The Interview: Gary Lineker: They thought it was all over... but thanks to an England hero, there's new life. Nick Townsend talks to the man who rescued his hometown club

Talk about an evening in with Gary Lineker. You would have done well last week to avoid that rubbery, tanned visage, topped with hair greying at the temples – "like Gareth Gates' father", according to Jonathan Ross.

Playing the engagingly earnest team "captain" Gary to jesters Ross and Rory McGrath on They Think It's All Over, he could also be seen shadowing Sir Bobby Robson in a generous profile of the great man, and then presenting Match of the Day twice – the FA Cup replay on Wednesday and Liverpool's Uefa Cup game on Thursday. He is the central character in that slightly dubious Walkers Crisps advert, its humour based upon celebrities farting, which is to promote Comic Relief. And there was even a brief sight of him in Hitting The Bar, ITV's pious tale of footballers afflicted by alcohol.

Not appearing as a subject, you understand. Good heavens, no. Lineker merely appeared in that hugely evocative clip from the 1990 World Cup semi-final in Turin in which Gazza is on the point of blubbing, and Lineker shoots that knowing look at Bobby Robson on the touchline. It epitomises the two men's characters: Gascoigne's emotions constantly on the cusp of eruption; Lineker, so manifestly in control, he has time to look out for others.

"What was going through my mind? 'Oh, shit, he's lost it', probably," Lineker recalls with that winsome smile. "I was just trying to get over to Bobby that we might have a problem. It was just to say, 'Keep an eye on him'. Gazza's bottom lip was going, he knew he'd miss the final, if we made it." The pair still speak occasionally by phone and Lineker has great affection for his former Tottenham and England team-mate, now clinging on to his career in a China outpost. "Life for him, well, it's not been ideal, with his injuries and other problems. We can only hope for a happy ending, although you worry that might not be."

They continued as fellow travellers at Tottenham, but then their paths forked significantly following the 1991 FA Cup final, in which Gascoigne was carried off and Lineker missed a penalty, although Spurs still won. As Gascoigne began his inexorable descent, which many of us feared, Lineker started the assault of career number two. It has culminated as successfully as we suspected it would.

The explanations become clear as we talk in his BBC dressing room just before he records this week's TTIAO. Apart from the astute management of his old friend and agent, Jon Holmes – now the chairman of a re-born Leicester City – he is a swift learner and has possessed sufficient judgement to reject any opportunities to which he would be temperamentally unsuited. That is why he could never entertain management, nor, in light of recent events, chairmanship. Mention either, and his nose wrinkles, a bit like Catherine Zeta Jones being caught out by the paparazzi.

It was solely an affection for his home-town club which compelled him to become figurehead of the company which a fortnight ago took Leicester out of administration. "It was a real battle to raise the money," he says. "But I'm chuffed at the reaction, because if you put yourself on the line it's important to deliver. As far as I know, there were no other players in town, so who knows what would have happened?"

Lineker adds: "The fact that there's an excellent chance of promotion has attracted investors and has stabilised the situation. In some ways the the collapse of the transfer market has helped the club. We couldn't really sell anyone, apart from Robbie Savage, so we've pretty much kept the squad together. But promotion is one thing – the hardest thing will be to stay there, as we know. If Micky Adams could do for Leicester what Alan Curbishley has done for Charlton, that'd be a fantastic achievement."

Last Saturday, City fans resisted an attempt to change the club's name back to the original, Leicester Fosse. Lineker didn't vote because he was away, watching one of his four sons play rugby. He would probably have opted to retain City. "But to be honest, it wasn't a great name, was it? Come on you Fosse...?" There is a slight curling of the lip. "It doesn't sound hard enough, does it? And that's me saying that."

Hard has never been the saintly striker's way. You can't imagine too many flying boots coming his way. If they did, he would probably have buffed them up and politely returned them. "I've probably had a sandwich or two thrown at me," he suggests, almost apologetically as he contemplates the lure, or otherwise, of management. "You've got to be so incredibly enthusiastic and amazingly passionate. Look at the really successful ones, like Ferguson, Robson, Wenger, O'Neill, and they just live it and breathe it. You've got to be of that ilk, spend just about every moment of your waking life training and watching football. That never appealed to me."

He is uncertain about Sven Goran Eriksson, the unquantifiable man. "He never gives you anything in an interview," he says. "He's pretty dour. But his players seem to like him and his club record speaks for itself. He had an OK World Cup. But ultimately the England job is about players. The manager doesn't have to do that much."

Lineker, however, is convinced that the Swede's strategy regarding friendlies is misplaced. "Sven's tried to placate the club managers and I don't think he should have worried about that. He should not make any deals. Before every friendly game I played my club manager would say, 'Are you sure you're all right? You haven't got a bit of a tweak?' which was effectively saying, 'Fancy missing this one – please?' And I'd say, 'Well, actually, I'm going.' And that was it. If Sven selects exactly who he wants, he would find out who really does want to play for their country. It would help him in the long term. At the moment it's crazy; you may as well not bother with friendlies."

Even before he finished playing, Lineker was preparing for his next incarnation. It was no whim. Even as a schoolboy, he was determined to work in the media if he did not make it as a footballer, though at the time his thoughts were more attuned to becoming a journalist. "Just think," he says, laughing. "I might be out there now with a notepad, interviewing some obnoxious little git."

Last week, he made a very decent fist of interviewing a venerable and very un-git-like Sir Bobby, another departure Lineker may not have anticipated when he started on Radio Five Live in 1992 before turning to Football Focus and then eventually replacing Des Lynam as presenter of Match of the Day. On Saturday, Lineker will front the Arsenal-Chelsea FA Cup quarter-final live. He is enthused by the prospect of watching Arsène Wenger's men. "Gallic flair and flamboyance, but played at British pace," he says. "They're the sort of team that if you know they're playing you have to switch the telly on – and that's from an ex-Spurs man."

And what of Thierry Henry? How does Lineker compare himself with the striker supreme? "He's a significantly better footballer than I ever was. But I was obsessed with scoring goals; I don't think he is. Henry's got other things than scoring on his mind."

Not everyone, however, would have considered it the best career move also to appear on a show, TTIAO, best known for a humour style which ranges from the amusingly risqué to the decidedly puerile, yet Lineker himself somehow manages to emerge from it all with image enhanced. "I don't think it does any harm to be perceived as having some sort of edge," he explains. "The show's certainly helped me a lot as regards humour; seeing how the other boys think, how they work. That's been helpful going into the Match of the Day side of things; not being scared to deliver a line."

He may never make it as stand-up; yet, his subtle but pointed allusion to the intrusion of Eriksson's lovelife into England's World Cup preparations when he interviewed him at the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year awards was expressed with a confidence and a wit few would have believed of a prolific teenage phenomenon they first saw turn out for Leicester a quarter of a century ago.

And, what the hell, he's Gary Lineker, so he can get away with it.

Biography: Gary Lineker OBE

Born: 20 November 1960 in Leicester

Married to: Michelle with four sons

International career: England (1984-92): 80 appearances, 48 goals.

Club career: Leicester City (1976-85): 209 appearances, 103 goals. Everton (1985-86): 57 appearances, 40 goals. Barcelona FC (1986-89): 111 appearances, 48 goals. Tottenham Hotspur (1989-92): 134 appearances, 80 goals. Nagoya Grampus (Japan, 1993-1994): 17 appearances, 6 goals.

Awards: PFA Footballer of the Year, 1986. Football Writers' Association Player of the Year, 1986, 1992. World Cup 1986 Golden Boot.

Media career: A familiar face on BBC, he began broadcasting with Radio 5 in 1992. His earliest stint as a TV pundit was during the 1986 World Cup.