Editing Gary Lineker (section)

===Barcelona===
After winning the [[World Cup Golden Boot|Golden Boot]] at the [[1986 FIFA World Cup|1986 World Cup]] in Mexico there were many courters for Lineker across Europe. Barcelona at the time were managed by fellow Englishman [[Terry Venables]], who had arrived in 1984, and who had already brought in [[Scotland national football team|Scottish]] striker [[Steve Archibald]] to great effect, and was to also bring in [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]] and [[Wales national football team|Wales]] striker [[Mark Hughes]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/01/12/nunez-maradona-and-venables-the-barcelona-years/|title=Nunez, Maradona and Venables: the Barcelona years|date=12 January 2016}}</ref> Lineker was signed by [[FC Barcelona|Barcelona]] for £2.8&nbsp;million.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/gary-lineker-everton-inside-story-17986564|title=Gary Lineker, Everton and the inside story of his £2.8m move|first=David|last=Prentice|date=26 March 2020|work=Liverpool Echo}}</ref> Barcelona would give Lineker his first chance of European football, as Leicester had never qualified for Europe while he played for them, and Everton were denied a place in the [[European Cup]] for 1985–86 due to the ban on English clubs in European competitions following the [[Heysel disaster]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=English football clubs banned from Europe {{!}} June 2, 1985 |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/english-football-clubs-banned-from-europe |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=HISTORY|date=16 November 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ap |date=1985-06-03 |title=ENGLISH SOCCER CLUBS ARE BANNED FROM EUROPEAN PLAY INDEFINITELY |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/03/world/english-soccer-clubs-are-banned-from-european-play-indefinitely.html |access-date=2024-06-02 |work=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2024-02-25 |title=European Football Union Bans English Soccer Teams |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/06/03/european-football-union-bans-english-soccer-teams/04959dae-2e33-4962-984c-e197b98d9601/ |access-date=2024-06-02 |newspaper=Washington Post|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

Barcelona had won the [[1984–85 La Liga|'84-85 La Liga title]] in Venables first season at the club, and the [[1986 Copa de la Liga]] the following season but had lost 2 other finals, so there was great anticipation of success at the [[Camp Nou]] for Lineker.  He made his Barcelona debut against [[Racing de Santander|Racing Santander]], scoring twice.<ref name="Tremlett2008">{{cite book|author=Giles Tremlett|title=Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country's Hidden Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nt5pkqkSsiEC&pg=PT228|date=2 October 2008|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-24790-5|pages=228–}}</ref> Barcelona led the league for much of the [[1986–87 FC Barcelona season|'86-87 season]], until a pair of losses against Real Zaragoza and Sporting Gijon gave advantage to Real Madrid. Two further losses to the same team cemented Barcelona's second place finish. Lineker ultimately had scored 20 goals in 40 league games during his first season, including a [[hat-trick]] in a 3–2 win over archrivals [[Real Madrid C.F.|Real Madrid]] to make him somewhat of a cult hero.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.talkfootball.co.uk/guides/football_legends_gary_lineker.html|title=Gary Lineker|access-date=9 March 2008|publisher=Talk Football}}</ref> However the club had crashed out of the Copa del Rey at the first hurdle, and suffered a shock defeat to [[Dundee United]] in the [[1987 UEFA Cup final|'87 UEFA Cup]] where Lineker hadn't scored any goals in 8 appearances.

For the [[1987–88 FC Barcelona season|'87-88 season]] hopes were still high for the club, but following three back to back losses at the start of the season Terry Venables was fired and [[Luis Aragonés]] brought in to replace him as manager. Linekers form remained strong, and he helped the club recover some form and scored a double against Real Madrid in a 4-1 win in the December, but he finished the season with only 16 goals in 35 league games as the club finished 6th, however he had contributed a little more to the cup efforts as the club won the [[1988 Copa del Rey final|1988 Copa del Rey]], but failed again at the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Cup.

In the summer, the club endured a tumultuous off season that culminated in the "[[Josep Lluís Núñez#Hesperia Mutiny|Hesperia Mutiny]]" that saw a large number of players and coaches fired after protesting pay and conditions at the club.<ref name="Hesperia">{{cite web | last=Contributors | first=Guest | title=The 1988 Motín del Hesperia: can Barcelona now learn from it? | website=Barca Universal | date=2020-09-02 | url=https://barcauniversal.com/the-1988-motin-del-hesperia-can-barcelona-now-learn-from-it/ | access-date=2025-04-04}}</ref> In the aftermath Barcelona moved to sign former player for the club during their last most successful era, and current Ajax manager [[Johan Cruyff]]. The club set about rebuilding its team, retaining only a skeleton of the squad that had finished '87-88 in 6th place - including Lineker. The impact of Cruyff was immediate. Barcelona became a much more attacking side, and finished the season [[1988–89 FC Barcelona season|'88-89 season]] in a much improved 2nd place. However Lineker lost his favoured position at centre forward to new signing [[Julio Salinas]], and saw himself pushed out wide right for most of the season resulting in both the lowest goal output (6) and appearances (26) in the league of Lineker's career as a starter. The club won [[1989 European Cup Winners' Cup final]] where Lineker fared better than previous seasons, scoring four times in 8 outings.

As the season came to an end, Barcelona was seeking to raise much needed funds for Cruyff and to free up the "foreigner" spot in the squad to continue his rebuilding project at the club, while Lineker was desperate to find first team opportunities in his favoured position.<ref name="IrishTimesCruyff">{{cite news | last=Lowe | first=Sid | title=Gary Lineker: Barcelona spell is when it dawned on me that I was good at this | newspaper=The Irish Times | date=2021-10-23 | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/gary-lineker-barcelona-spell-is-when-it-dawned-on-me-that-i-was-good-at-this-1.4709165 | access-date=2025-04-04}}</ref>

With 42 goals in 103 La Liga appearances, Lineker had become the highest scoring British player in the competition's history, this was later surpassed by [[Gareth Bale]] in March 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Southcombe|first=Matthew|date=20 March 2016|title=Gareth Bale breaks La Liga goalscoring record|url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/gareth-bale-becomes-top-british-11070005|access-date=1 February 2021|website=WalesOnline|language=en}}</ref>