Quotes from Gary Lineker

When I see old photos of me on the beach I don't look too bad... but it's hard trying to breathe in for such a long time when I spot the photographers!

Congratulations to Thierry Henry on a truly wonderful career. One of the great footballers of our time and a top bloke. Bonne chance.

My wife Danielle and I love travelling, different cultures and good weather.

Some players are quite homely, and they don't see themselves going abroad; others would relish the challenge. I can only speak personally, but I always wanted the challenge, and to go and live in a place like Barcelona was great.

It's nice to have the power of Twitter to correct things that were incorrect.

Are people like Tom Cruise in touch with their public? I doubt it. Footballers are more like the rock stars of yester-year: they are box office.

The best, most successful managers in the modern era are those who can keep a player happy even if he is not in the team. Given the size of the squads and the use of rotation nowadays, that's tougher than it's ever been.

I've had hundreds of requests from journalists all over the world asking me to speak about Leicester, which is astonishing. It's captured the imagination.

The train's always full of football fans going up to see matches. Oh, they make sure I hear their points of view all right. They all want to have their say about their team, and make their opinions known.

The truth is I don't feel too bad for my age. I actually have a better shape now than I used to.

I think if I'd ever had any skeletons in the closet, they'd have been out a long time ago.

The way children are taught football doesn't encourage skill; the focus is on other areas.

As footballers, you just grow up with people from different backgrounds and different colors of skin.

You cannot get involved in debate on 'MOTD'. You can do it on Sky because they've got hours and hours. We've got a couple of minutes. It's a very disciplined show. Our primary purpose is to show the action, and the analysis is very secondary. We have lots of people who would prefer no analysis. We have lots of people who would prefer more analysis.

I don't think there was a definite day, but it would have been around my mid-20s. I was always interested in the media side of things. When we travelled with England away, or to World Cups, I used to sit with journos while they wrote their copy.

Twitter has been a godsend for travelling.

We are in the entertainment business and we all know if you are top of the tree you get the big money. Those of us who have been in it are the fortunate ones but we understand that we probably don't deserve it as much as the nurses or teachers.

We are in the the entertainment business, and we all know if you are top of the tree, you get big money.

Not many players would turn down a chance to play for Real Madrid and Barcelona, as they're right at the top the tree in terms of football.

If I hadn't have been good enough at football, I'd have been a sports journalist - which is what I do now anyway. Or a cricketer. I might have been a cricketer.

Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.

Ooh, it's too embarrassing to share my innermost romantic secrets - although I have written Danielle the odd poem. If anything they are more comedic than romantic. They used to be well-received but that was before she started studying Shakespeare at drama college. Now I feel so inept.

The whole kiss-and-tell thing is a negative approach that often happens in a World Cup. We will see negative stories about the players and it can affect their confidence and the overall performance of the national team on the pitch, let alone the bid to actually stage the competition.

We have got too many kids around the house to have a romantic meal at home. But Danielle is a fantastic cook. She does a brilliant lasagne, great roasts and a great chilli dish. She knows the way to my heart.