Lineker left ‘Elvis’ feeling all shook up
GARY LINEKER celebrated his 23rd birthday by playing against his boyhood hero – and sent him home a loser.
Frank Worthington was everything Lineker wanted to be.
He was football’s answer to Elvis Presley, a showman adored by women in nightclubs and fans on the terraces.
For five years, Worthington, who died this week aged 72, was the king of Leicester.
Lineker fell for Worthington while he was playing 239 games for the Foxes between 1972 and 1977.
Worthington was going to sign for Bill Shankly’s Liverpool, but failed a medical and instead made a
£100,000 switch to Leicester where boss Jimmy Bloomfield had a philosophy that suited him.
“We played football the right way,” said former team-mate Jon Sammels.
“Jimmy didn’t fill your head with tactics and what he wanted you to do.
“He used to say: ‘I’ve brought you here because you are good players, so go out there and play.’”
Worthington said he would tell Keith Weller and Lenny Glover: “Just give me the ball and I will do the rest” and he marked his Leicester debut with a goal at Old Trafford, cancelling out George Best’s strike for Manchester United.
Worthington kept making an impression – on and off the pitch.
He once said: “Whatever Elvis wore, I wore” and another former team-mate Alan Birchenall remembered him making jaws drop in the players’ lounge.
“There were usually two or three wives and girlfriends in the players’ lounge after games,” he said. “Then Frank comes
in with the tightest jeans, big buckled belt with ‘Elvis’ across it, a black T-shirt with glitter and ‘Elvis’ across it and a Stetson.
“The next home game, the room was rammed. Every player’s wife was there to see Frank.”
Foxes’ fans remember Worthington’s balljuggling skills in the pre-match warm-up and he used his wonderful touch to conjure up what he jokingly referred to as “the best goal ever scored.”
That solo effort was for Bolton against Ipswich, one of 24 goals he scored in the top flight during the 1978-79 season.
Leicester fans had been stunned by boss Frank McLintock’s decision to sell him to the Trotters and from there, he moved on to Birmingham, Leeds, Sunderland and Southampton.
He returned to Leicester with Southampton in November, 1983 as a 35-year-old veteran and at the other end of the pitch was Lineker, on his 23rd birthday.
The home crowd that night cheered for Leicester and Worthington – and got what they wanted.
Worthington cancelled out Alan Smith’s opener – before Lineker grabbed the winner for the Foxes.