And Chapman, who is one of the MOTD understudies along with Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan, joked that he had completely forgotten about the former World Cup Golden Boot winner since Lineker was groomed by Micah Richards. Before the semifinals at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the panel was talking about Jude Bellingham. “It’s like a striker when you (Wayne Rooney) are talking about the goals he’s scoring. It’s how close he’s scoring. Less than 10 meters to go.
“You look at some of the goal scorers on that list. They’re out-and-out goal scorers, some are out-and-out poachers, and he’s one of them.”
But Richards, who is still working with Lineker on The Rest Is Football, which airs on Netflix during the World Cup, said: “There’s one thing I don’t like about that list. Another graphic with Gary Lineker on it! (Laughs) He’s just texting me now and he’s falling off the table. Thank God for that!”
Chapman replied, “Gary who? Joke! Joke! Before you all start. Nice joke!”, prompting laughter from Richards, Rooney and Joe Hart.
Lineker sparked further controversy before England’s semi-final when he referred to the Falkland Islands as “Las Malvinas” before the match. This is the Spanish name used by Argentines to refer to British overseas territories.
The 65-year-old refused to back down, saying, “I’ve said it 100 times over the years. I don’t see why it really matters. Well, that’s what they call it. I said it.”
“That’s what we call them in Argentina, the Malvinas Islands. So that’s a factually correct term. We call them the Falkland Islands, and that’s okay, right? I think we’re diplomatic enough to do that.”
The Falkland Islands were at the center of a 74-day conflict between Britain and Argentina in 1982 that left 907 people dead. Mr Lineker implored England fans not to bring up war talk before the game in Atlanta.
He added: “I can’t wrap my head around any war and there’s so much going on around the world right now that we should probably focus on it a little more than we did on the Falkland Islands 40-odd years ago.”
“Honestly, I think they want to beat us because they want to win the World Cup, and we want to beat them because we want to win the World Cup, not to prove some point 40-odd years later.”
