By Henry Winter

The Daily Telegraph
July 30 1996

In a sport which appears populated more with professional models than model professionals, Alan Shearer is the genuine footballing article.

Outwardly modest, yet inwardly driven; an uncomplaining warrior in a world of flying feet and elbows; a man committed to the team and his family; a manager’s joy; the champion of the terraces. If any footballer is worth £15 million, Alan Shearer is.

There are no grey areas with this uncomplicated North-Easterner, which makes him so well suited to the black and white of Newcastle United. No posturing, no need for nannying, Shearer is almost a throwback to a more dignified age, when grace was valued as much as pace.

Shearer’s well-earned reputation as a serial scorer, one that underpinned a championship that now seems an age away, only partly explains his phenomenal popularity at Blackburn. His willingness to take knocks and play in pain, to shift impatiently on the bench when Kenny Dalglish held him back following cruciate ligament surgery, made him the idol of Ewood.

Before each kick-off he focuses on the pending contest while taking time out to shake hands with clamorous match sponsors. Like Gary Lineker, his predecessor as England’s lead striker, Shearer has “ambassador” in his footballing passport.

Shearer scored on his England debut against France in 1992 and Lineker observed then that he “might become something special because of his strong character”. The sight a season ago of Shearer staring at a seething Gallowgate then drilling in a penalty for Blackburn, confirmed Lineker’s words.

The Gallowgate, where Shearer’s passion first flickered, will revel in the return of the prodigious son. Geordie acquaintances of this observer walk to work dreaming of the day Shearer wears football’s most famous stripes. That day has arrived.

Shearer is almost the Identikit Newcastle No 9. There are scorers who head the ball better, shoot better with left or right but none with the balance of all three or the determination that suffuses Shearer’s game. He offers much more than the current No 9, Les Ferdinand, who reaps his goal harvest from running in straight furrows. Shearer can run wide, create space, play with his back to goal and race through for the ball clipped over the top.

Shearer remains employed by a club committed to width (which Manchester United would also have provided). He should relish playing with two such accurate crossers as David Ginola and Keith Gillespie. With Faustino Asprilla or Peter Beardsley and Robert Lee able to slip the ball through the middle, Shearer is surely headed for another 30-goal season. The best thing about this prospect is that it will not change Shearer, the model professional, one iota.