England legend Gary Lineker has revealed his reasons behind joining Everton and not Manchester United.
The prolific marksman, now 58, signed for Howard Kendall in 1985 for £800,000 from his home city club Leicester and netted 40 goals in 57 games in his solitary season at Goodison Park, a total yet to be matched by any Blues player over three decades on.
Unfortunately for Lineker , who replaced fans' favourite Andy Gray in the side, Everton finished runners-up to neighbours Liverpool in both the League and FA Cup that term – with the Reds landing the double for the only time in their history.
He then went on to win the Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico as Bobby Robson's side reached the quarter-finals only to be denied by Diego Maradona's infamous 'Hand of God' goal and his exploits earned him a £2.8million move to Barcelona.
A Q&A from FourFourTwo shown on Twitter highlighted how Lineker came close to joining Manchester United in 1989 before eventually signing for Tottenham Hotspur and prompted a follow-up question from a fan who asked the Match of the Day host did he want to move there in 1985 when Ron Atkinson wanted to sign him?
Lineker replied: “No, I wanted to go to Everton and I did. Important to remember that Manchester United were very average at the time and Everton were champions.”
In 1985 it had been 18 years since United had last been crowned champions in 1967.
They finished fourth that season and although they were only a point adrift of both runners-up Liverpool and third-placed Tottenham Hotspur, they were 14 points behind Everton, who also lifted the European Cup-Winners' Cup.
However, they did taste victory in the FA Cup final that year by defeating the Blues 1-0 after extra time with a goal from future Everton player Norman Whiteside despite Kevin Moran becoming the first player to be sent off in the fixture.
