GARY LINEKER has blown the final whistle on his Match Of The Day presenting career – and what a goal-den run it has been.
Over a quarter of a century, his highlights reel includes hosting the programme in his undies and having toast thrown at him by footie hardman Vinnie Jones.
Yet the ex-England ace’s debut on the world’s longest-running TV football show left him squirming. “My first-ever appearance on Match Of The Day was probably my worst,” he told the BBC.
“I was playing for Leicester in 1980 and, in those days, there was usually just one game shown. So it was incredibly exciting when I heard that our match against Aston Villa had been chosen.
“Unfortunately, I missed an easy chance, knocking it over the bar from five yards out. I remember going home and being absolutely hammered by my family when they watched the show that night.”
Gary, 63, who hails from a family of greengrocers, added: “My dad enjoyed a bet, but if you’d offered him odds that night back in 1980 that one day I’d present MOTD in my pants, as a result of Leicester winning the Premier League, then he would have laughed you out of town.”
Few have had more stellar England careers than Gary, whose final show will be at the end of this season.
The former striker remains the Three Lions’ top scorer at World Cups, with ten goals to his name, and is England’s fourth-highest scorer of all time.
He notched up four goals at Italia 90 when England reached the semi-final. He scored in that match before West Germany famously won on penalties.
Later, showing an aptitude for a pithy phrase, he said: “Football is a simple game — 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and, at the end, the Germans win.”
The ex-England skipper always had his eye on a career in the media during his playing career.
On retirement, he went into presenting and punditry with the BBC, initially for Radio 5 Live.
He was also a witty team captain on TV sporting quiz show They Think It’s All Over from 1995 to 2003.
Dad-of-four Gary took over presenting Match Of The Day in 1999 from Des Lynam, who many at the time regarded as irreplaceable.
And earlier this year, he told the BBC: “I didn’t do punditry for very long. I wanted Des’s job.”
At the time he stepped up to the top hosting role, Gary said: “I’ve been watching Match Of The Day since I was a boy.
“And just as captaining England was an honour, so too is hosting the best football show on TV.
“It’s a job any sports broadcaster would be proud to do and I’m thrilled.”
Gary would say of his first show in the hot seat in 1999: “You can’t really practise telly. I don’t get nervous, didn’t as a player, don’t as a presenter, but I remember that first show, there were a few butterflies.”
At first, Gary says his presentation style was not as honed as he would have liked.
He recalled: “I remember for a couple of years driving home and thinking, ‘I’m never going to be able to crack this’.
“But, in the end, you get used to the environment and then it becomes natural — and then it really depends on whether you’ve got enough likeability, that more people like you than hate you.”
Gary’s mix of assured authority and quick sense of humour won him legions of fans.
Following Premier League rights returning to the BBC from ITV in 2004, Gary pushed for all the day’s matches to be screened.
“It’s constantly evolved,” he told the BBC when celebrating Match Of The Day’s 60th anniversary in August this year.
“I can remember when I grew up there was just one game shown. Then it went to two.
“Then we lost the rights for three years to ITV. When we got the rights back, I said, ‘Is there any way we can show all the games?’.
“We found a way of doing it, so I thought, ‘Right, we won’t get people moaning their team is never on Match Of The Day’.
“But, of course, then it becomes where the team is in the running order. ‘We’re always last’, and this kind of stuff’.”
Despite Gary and his pundits’ forthright criticism, he says few players have had a go at him, explaining: “Very, very rarely. Not with players.
“Managers more so, managers are touchy. Footballers get it — they know when they’ve made a mistake.”
One player who did have a “pop” at him was former Wimbledon hardman Vinnie Jones.
The player-turned actor told The Sun how Gary “said he’d rather watch Ceefax than watch Wimbledon”.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star Vinnie, who was not amused, said: “If I’d got hold of him, I’d have ripped him a f***ing new a***hole.
“So when I saw him in a hotel in Dublin, I threw me f***ing dinner at him and said, ‘Well, you want to say something now, big ears?’.”
The 1995 set-to also involved Vinnie chucking slices of toast at Gary.
Three years later, the pair appeared together in a Walkers crisps advert, the hatchet seemingly buried.
If I’d got hold of him, I’d have ripped him a f***ing new a***hole
Vinnie Jones
Now Vinnie says: “He’s not on my Christmas card list. I’m sure I’m not on his.”
In 2016, Gary promised to present Match Of The Day in his pants if his beloved Leicester City achieved the remarkable feat of winning the Premier League title.
“I did a tweet in December saying if Leicester win the league I’ll do the first show of next season in my undies. When I did that tweet, I knew there was categorically zero chance Leicester would win the league. But, of course, they did.
“I kind of had to do it. It was the most surreal thing I’ve done on TV.”
Gary also showed his cheeky side when then-Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette let out a blood-curdling scream after being fouled, falling to the ground and clutching his leg, in 2021.
Lacazette soon returned to his feet without needing treatment.
At the end of the show, Gary threw himself off his presenter’s chair with mocking screams.
His prowess behind the mic has also seen him present coverage from the Olympics, major golf tournaments and the Sports Personality Of The Year awards.
He has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for the past seven years and would work for other networks, including BT Sport.
There is also a lucrative long-term sponsorship deal with Walkers crisps, and he jointly owns TV production company Goalhanger Films.
It produced sports documentaries including Rooney: The Man Behind the Goals, about Manchester United icon Wayne.
Goalhanger also has a podcast division, which has proved Gary’s Midas touch.
I did a tweet in December saying if Leicester win the league I’ll do the first show of next season in my undies. When I did that tweet, I knew there was categorically zero chance Leicester would win the league — but, of course, they did
Gary Lineker
Now the largest British producer of podcasts, its shows include The Rest Is History, The Rest Is Politics and his own podcast, The Rest Is Football, which he hosts with fellow goal-scoring great Alan Shearer and ex-Manchester City defender Micah Richards.
With his Match Of The Day contract expiring next summer, Gary said in an August interview: “Podcast-wise, things have really exceeded our expectations.
“But at the same time, I love being part of Match Of The Day, I love working for the BBC.
“I know it has its issues and it has its troubles, but I think it’s brilliant.”
Gary is not content to do what his critics demand and stick merely to football.
Controversy over his political tweets reached boiling point in March 2023, with the resulting furore seeing the Match Of The Day host taken off air.
He had written on X that the language used by the then-government to launch a policy on small boat crossings was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”.
Esquire magazine called the ex-Leceister, Everton, Tottenham and Barcelona striker “the voice of liberal Britain”.
But BBC chiefs suspended Gary — who never received a yellow card, let alone a red, during his 16 years and 654 competitive matches.
In a mark of Gary’s popularity among his peers, sport presenters from across BBC programming, including Shearer, Ian Wright, Alex Scott, Jermain Defoe and Dion Dublin, mutinied and came off air.
Wright said he would quit Match Of The Day if the BBC “get rid of Lineker”. TV and radio shows including Football Focus, Final Score and Fighting Talk were pulled.
Match Of The Day lasted just 20 minutes without presenters or analysts and only edited highlights screened.
I love being part of Match Of The Day, I love working for the BBC. I know it has its issues and it has its troubles, but I think it’s brilliant
Gary Lineker
It was a mark of the esteem Gary is held in by the public that the BBC backed down and reinstated him.
An independent review of the corporation’s social media guidelines saw tougher new rules introduced. Then last month came rumours of a leaked email that hinted the BBC was drafting a statement on Gary’s departure from Match Of The Day.
A BBC spokesman insisted: “We have nothing to announce, and we have not agreed next steps with regard to his contract. He is on contract until the end of the season.”
Gary characteristically treated the speculation over his future with a gag.
He introduced Match Of The Day by saying: “Hello. Seven games on the way and it’s my final show . . . ”
Then, pausing with impeccable comic timing, he added: “Before the international break.”
Now, one of football’s most cherished sons really is leaving — as perhaps the iconic programme’s greatest-ever presenter.
