Gary Lineker in his Guardian interview:
“You’ve got no chance of reaching the top if you’re just playing for money. No, you play because you love it – and if you’ve got a talent you’ll love it even more. You’re not telling me that five-year-olds go: ‘If I do this I’ll earn lots of money and have a great life.’
The rest of the interview is equally bland.
Benoit Assou Ekotto:
“Martel said I go to England for the money but why do players come to his club? Because they look nice? All people, everyone, when they go to a job, it’s for the money. So I don’t understand why, when I said I play for the money, people were shocked. Oh, he’s a mercenary. Every player is like that.”
The spin would be Assou Ekotto the hard eyed realist with Lineker as the youthful idealist who still believes in values like honour and love of country. But Lineker in his second career as TV pundit is also extremely cautious about his public image which precludes him from expressing any strong sentiment. Assou Ekotto would have treated his illustrious Spurs predecessor with contempt.