Having been in the public eye so much in recent years, often for non-football reasons, Gary Lineker's playing career and England record can often seem like the preliminary to his move into broadcasting.
A new biography, however, will hopefully give a gentle reminder of a footballer who appeared 80 times for his country and scored 48 goals, often at crucial times as England stared down the barrel of World Cup exits at the group stage in 1986, before his hat-trick against Poland, and at the hands of Cameroon four years later when two nerveless penalties sealed a semi-final place.
There were lows as well as highs, no goals at Euro '88 and again four years later in Sweden when Lineker, whose penalty miss against Brazil prior to the tournament meant a missed opportunity to equal Bobby Charlton's scoring record for the national team, saw his international career ended when subbed by Graham Taylor against the host nation as England chased the goal that would keep them in the competition.
Gary Lineker: A Portrait of a Football Icon by Chris Evans, is published by Bloomsbury - read a sample of the book here.
Before Christmas, England Mad also looked at some other books that may be of interest - read the article here.
