Final whistle: Gary Lineker hosted Match of the Day for 25 years (PA Media)
Gary Lineker, who will leave Match of the Day at the end of the season, BBC News understands, has been the steady hand guiding millions of fans through the pain and ecstasy of football.
He has been hosting the flagship show for 25 years and is also one of the company’s most prominent presenters. Last year he earned £1.3 million.
His one-line payoffs at the end of each show, summarizing both the fans’ mood and the match, may have looked seamless.
But they were the result of years of honing his craft and presentation skills.
Gary Lineker celebrated qualifying for Euro 92 after the 1991 Poland vs England match (Getty Images)
A former footballer with a considerable pedigree – including England captain and striker, with 48 goals in 80 appearances – he is known to have never received a red or yellow card during his career.
His ability to keep a cool head on the pitch stood him in good stead for a career in live broadcasting when he retired as a player in 1994.
Even while still in school, he had his sights set on sports journalism and decided that this would be his fallback if football didn’t work out.
That was clearly the case.
Known for his ability to find holes in opposition defenses and his “poacher’s instincts”, Lineker was the 1986 World Cup Golden Boot winner and England’s top scorer three times, each with a different club: Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.
But while his sporting career was at its peak during the 1986 and 1990 World Cup finals, Lineker spent time with journalists staying in the same hotel as the England team.
“Already in my mid-twenties I knew what direction I wanted to go in when I stopped playing,” he says told the BBC in 2014.
“I watched the newspaper guys write their opening paragraphs and sat with the radio journalists and talked to them about how they did their jobs.”
His ultimate goal was to end up as a presenter rather than an expert.
But he admitted his move to radio and TV “took a lot of work”.
Lineker won the Golden Boot, for top scorer, at the 1986 World Cup (BBC) in Mexico
His early attempts at broadcasting were “quite awful”, he thinks told Ros Atkins of the BBC Media Show in 2021.
Starting at Radio 5 Live “was all part of the learning process”, he said.
“I managed to stumble my way through it, and I learned from really good people next to me who were incredibly helpful in the early days.”
Lineker built on that experience, writing all his own scripts and carve out a role for themselves.
After seeing ex-sports stars David Gower presenting the cricket and Sue Barker presenting the tennis, he wondered why it wasn’t the same in football.
“I just thought that as a player who has played at the top, I could carve out a place if I could present. told BBC Radio 4 podcast Don’t Tell Me the Score in 2019.
“It would give me an advantage over everyone else.”
Meanwhile, his popularity as a footballer continued. In 1991, Arthur Smith and Chris England wrote a play called An Evening With Gary Lineker, about a couple trying to rekindle their marriage during the 1990 World Cup semi-final.
Starring Caroline Quentin, Clive Owen, Paul Merton and Martin Clunes, the film was filmed for TV in 1994, with Lineker making a cameo appearance.
David Gower, Nick Hancock, Rory McGrath and Gary Lineker on They Think It’s All Over 2002 (BBC)
He also embarked on his wider TV career, appearing as team captain on the BBC One comedy panel show, They Think It’s All Over, from 1995 to 2003.
As a presenter he stood out when he replaced Des Lynam on the Saturday afternoon sports show Grandstand in 1997.
In the mid-1990s, Lineker also appeared as a pundit on Match of the Day.
This gave him an excellent learning spot – right next to the experienced and slick host Lynam.
“Des was very helpful. I asked a lot of questions about the little things he did and picked up some of his nuances,” said the former footballer.
“He told me to be brave with closing lines sometimes, and not to be afraid to be funny.
“Again, the little rewards that I sometimes make at the end of the show are something that came from him.”
Lineker said Des Lynam was “the doyenne of sports presenters and a tough act to follow” (PA Media)
In 1999, Lineker hosted the show, reaching an audience that the BBC sometimes found difficult to attract and retain.
People also listened to his chemistry with the show’s experts, including other former footballers such as Alan Shearer, Ian Wright, Micah Richards and Alan Hansen.
Lineker’s questions kept the analysis flowing, while he was always willing to share a joke and his own opinion.
He’s memorable too introduced the show in his pants in 2016, after promising to “do next season’s first MOTD in nothing but my underwear” if his former club Leicester won the Premier League, which they did.
Shearer and Wright couldn’t keep straight faces.
Their friendships were often highlighted. In June this year, Lineker and Shearer sent an emotional message of support to Hansenafter hearing the news that he was seriously ill in hospital.
Climbing to the top: Lineker tries out a climbing wall (Getty Images)
But despite his good rapport with his colleagues, things off-screen weren’t so simple.
As one of the BBC’s highest-paid presenters, regularly topping the list of staff whose salaries are declared, he was under constant scrutiny.
Lineker has not shied away from expressing his own opinions, especially on social media, while at the same time working for a broadcaster committed to impartiality.
In March last year he posted a message on X about the government’s asylum policy, which resulted in the BBC to suspend him briefly.
Shearer, Wright and other BBC sports presenters refused to appear on air in protest at his absence.
Match of the Day was reduced to a 20-minute edition minus the presenter, experts and commentary – and the story made headlines for days, with politicians and media commentators all having their say on the matter.
BBC director general Tim Davie next apologized to license fee payers for the disruption, calling it a “difficult day” for the company.
Lineker was reinstated nine days later.
The presenter said later the response to his tweet was “stupid – that shouldn’t have been”.
“I love the BBC. I’ve been there for almost 30 years, but people make mistakes, they recognize it and they’ve dealt with it and in the end, thankfully, we’re all back to work,” he said.
Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer have officiated many major football tournaments (Getty Images)
The headlines and drama generated by his online views reinforced not only his high celebrity status, but also how keen the BBC was to keep him around.
The incident prompted a review of the BBC’s social media guidelines. New rules for BBC presenters were published last September, saying they can express their views on issues and policies but must not run political campaigns.
Lineker said the recommendations were “all very sensible”.
By means of February this yearhe said he was using X less often, and said the platform had become “increasingly toxic” under its new owner, Elon Musk.
Despite this, he and the BBC are still parting ways and the premier football show is left without a presenter.
Lineker has numerous outside business interests, including the successful podcast production company he co-founded called Goalhanger.
It produces shows like The Rest Is History, The Rest Is Entertainment and The Rest Is Politics won the championship prize at this year’s Podcast Awards.
But for the BBC, Lineker’s departure comes after several scandals.
Former Match of the Day and The One Show host Jermaine Jenas was fired in August in response to complaints about behavior in the workplace.
In September the BBC apologized to Amanda Abbington and upheld some of her complaints against her 2023 dance partner Giovanni Pernice, while acquitting him of the most serious charges.
In the same month, Mr Davie said he would not see disgraced ex-news presenter Huw Edwards working at the company again.
Edwards was was given a prison sentence of six months, of which two years were conditionalafter admitting making indecent images of children.
So the BBC needs good headlines – and Lineker’s departure means it now has to find an exceptional host to fill his shoes, which will be no easy task.
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