Lineker and Cesc Fàbregas co-present the 14-part Audible Original podcast series

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Audible has launched the 14-episode ‘How to Win a World Cup’ podcast series with Gary Lineker and Cesc Fàbregas. The Audible Original explores what it takes to win the biggest prize in the game.

In the podcast, Lineker and Fàbregas team up to take an entertaining look at what it takes to become world champions – including discussing the importance of having a football genius in your side, a top manager, the best striker, the ultimate game plan, or just a huge slice of luck.

The series features Fàbregas recounting what it’s like sitting on the bench in the final desperate for the chance to make history, and the pair debating what went wrong for England’s ‘golden generation’ and whether Gareth Southgate’s current team can bring home the ultimate prize in Qatar.

Lineker said: “To win the World Cup is every footballer’s dream. I got reasonably close, but the absolute heartache of losing on penalties in the semi final in 1990 remains my one major regret from my time as a player. Spending time with Cesc Fabregas was fantastic fun. His insight into what it takes to actually win the World Cup was brilliant. He played with and against the absolute legends of the game and lifted the greatest trophy of all. Not that I’m jealous. Ok, well maybe just a little bit.”

Fàbregas adds: “Winning the World Cup was the absolute highlight of my career and I’ll never forget that special night in Johannesburg with my family watching on. Chatting with Gary about what it takes to win the World Cup brought back loads of amazing memories. Plus, I loved hearing about his time as a player, facing legends like Diego Maradona. And it was fun to remind Gary that while he won the Golden Boot, I got to lift the golden trophy.”

How to Win a World Cup was produced by Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger Podcasts company and can be downloaded here.

Gary Lineker interview

Broadcast Sport sat down with Gary Lineker to talk through the ‘How to Win a World Cup’ podcast. You can listen to the conversation in the Broadcast Sport podcast series. Here are some of the highlights.

Please explain the concept behind the podcast and what listeners can expect throughout the series

Gary Lineker: We had the idea a while ago to do something in the build-up for the World Cup. We came up with the idea of basically, ‘How to win a World Cup’, that would involve me not knowing how to win a World Cup with someone that does know how to win a World Cup and that obviously being Cesc. He was always my first choice because he’s incredibly articulate, he’s won the World Cup and I’ve worked with him, for the BBC and various major competitions and Cesc was up for it. So, we did it in Barcelona over a few days. And it went so well, I’m really pleased with it. Cesc is fantastic and he’s got so many stories and is incredibly honest.

How did you decide on the different themes? And how did you make sure that each episode has the same sort of pace and consistent feel as well?

Gary Lineker: The pace just kind of happened. We just did it and it flowed really nicely from the start. So, it had a good pace to it. Coming up with the titles to the episodes, we just put our heads together. Some of them are obvious - you know, do you need a superstar, or a genius we called it, and then sometimes you were thinking, well, here’s this subject, are we going to manage to do a good half an hour? But we did on each one and there’s hardly been any editing either.

When it comes to presenting a podcast and creating the editorial for it, do you approach it in quite a different way to TV presenting?

Gary Lineker: Yeah, very much so. The TV side is very planned and very meticulous, particularly MOTD where you’ve got eight games to fit in and the timings are quite tight. The chat has to be a bit planned because the guys have got their analysis and I have to lead them in, so it’s much more structured. With all the podcasts I’ve been involved in, including this one, there was no real script. I lead it and present it and it’s a bit more ad hoc and it’s fun. You can be a little bit more of yourself, you can swear and all that and it’s less regimented.

For the full interview, listen to the podcast episode above and below.