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Having made the switch from striker to spectator in the mid-'90s, Gary Lineker has forged a longer career out of watching football than he did playing it, from BBC Radio 5 Live and They Think It's All Over to his longstanding role as Match of the Day anchorman.
So it goes without saying that the Leicester obsessive has his football watching habits down to something of an art form. When he's watching 90 minutes of the stuff in the studio, that’s no exaggeration. “There's no script in live football matches; everything is determined by the events on the pitch," says Lineker. ”It’s where the BBC is different to all other channels. We don’t have commercials and there are 15 minutes to fill, which has to be planned in the 45 minutes prior.”
Of course, Lineker has a knack for making it all look very easy. And in this billboard year for the game, which has not only heralded the return of fans to stadiums but has presented a scintillating title race and, down the line, will see a controversy-struck World Cup descend on Qatar, the former forward is busier than ever. “It's great to see the grounds full again,” he beams. “The atmosphere is just so much better. I attended a lot of games without supporters in the stadiums and it was like watching training in many ways – important training, but training nonetheless.”
With much to look forward to on the footy front, there are few people better placed to advise on how one can reap the most enjoyment from the game as Gary Lineker. So fine-tuned are his watching habits, he’s even partnered with Vision Express on an eyewear edit that'll take in every pixel all the clearer, and has just expanded into a line of sharp, Women's Euro 2022-ready shades. As such, we’ve linked up with the man himself to share his spectating secrets, be he home or away, so that you can enjoy the game as Gary does.
The set-up
"My viewing set-up is something I planned years ago. I've got a kind of big cinema screen with projectors, but the TV goes through it as well. I've got some big armchairs to watch it all on, too, so it's like a tiny little cinema or what I call my man cave.
“I’m not the most technologically gifted; anything technical usually goes wrong for me, so I try to get things as simple as possible. I do have four sons, so that helps. They often come around – but mainly for the food, I think.”
The specs
“I wear glasses pretty much all the time now. Before when I was watching a game on the TV, I wouldn't wear glasses, but gradually my eyesight deteriorated so I wear varifocals now. I was losing glasses all the time when I was on the reading glasses, because when you just use glasses for reading, you lose them or you sit on them. Now that they're permanently on my head, that doesn't happen.
“Now that I’ve done two or three edits with Vision Express, I’ve got a range of glasses to choose between and I like to mix it up. I vary them with the clothes I wear and mix it up just like I would a shirt, especially when I’m working on TV. I have favourite shapes – I quite like the hexagon ones and the little black oblong shaped ones – but there are certain glasses I've worked out definitely don't work for my face shape. I have quite a small head – some people might say I’m big-headed, but I quite literally have a small head, so big glasses don't work for me particularly – they kind of drown my face out a little bit.”
The snacks
"I’m a keen cook so on a Sunday afternoon, for example, we always watch the football at home, the boys will come around and I’ll cook Sunday lunch, then we'll go and relax and watch the football downstairs.
“As for my snack of choice, do you really need to ask? Obviously crisps – a packet of Walkers salt and vinegar. My go-to drink is red wine usually, whether it’s dinner or watching a game – a nice Bordeaux. I’m a bit of a wine-o, so I’ve got a fairly good collection of different vintages from all over the place.”
The shades
"The Vision Express line is around sunglasses this time. It's really about making people aware of not just how to protect their eyes a little bit more against harmful UV rays, which is super important, but also the fact that you can get varifocals and prescription glasses in sunglasses as well, which is particularly useful for me because, now that my sight has started to wain, it’s nice not to have to keep changing between glasses and sunglasses. For me it’s been a gamechanger, particularly on holiday.
"I go away a bit and that’s where my sunglasses get the most use. Obviously, once we get towards the end of the season, towards FA Cup final time, it can be quite bright, but I don't think I could broadcast in sunglasses – it wouldn’t look right and we're always shaded and lit properly anyway.
"In Qatar, we're planning to be at pretty much every game that we show, and I plan to be wearing them lots off-screen there. I think we’ve all got concerns about this world cup because of what's happened with human rights in terms of the stadiums, and about the corrupt way the World Cup was won back in the day. Like any World Cup, though, the tournament will be great and we'll be there to report it. People do ask me ‘Well, why would you go if you're not overly thrilled that they won the World Cup under those circumstances.' But we've got people in Ukraine at the moment – they're not there supporting the war. They're there to report on it, and it's exactly the same for us.”
The 'fit
"If I’m on the road I tend to travel up casually then change. For Match of the Day, I'll just get up there in a tracksuit and bring the clothes I'm going to wear with me – normally a pair of trousers and a shirt. If we’re at an FA Cup tie or something like that then obviously I’ll pack a suit and tie.
"I've always been keen on clothes. I know what I like and I'm not too loud or extravagant – generally black, dark grey, dark blue and stuff like that. Jack Davidson are making my suits at the moment, they’ve been great. I don’t really wear much jewellery. Like anyone else I wear a watch, but I don’t like things to be too flash. I’ve got a fairly basic Hublot on at the moment.
“When I’m watching football at home I can relax a bit more. I just enjoy it. I put my feet up on the sofa and I’m in my tracksuit or whatever works. I’m very casual at home – joggers or jeans and a T-shirt, like most people would be I suppose.”
Shop Gary Lineker's Vision Express sunglasses edit from April 27. visionexpress.com
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