Gary Lineker to end his 25-year Match of The Day association after announcing his decision to step down from the role.
Gary Lineker is to step down as the presenter of Match of the Day at the end of the season.
At the conclusion of the current season, Gary Lineker will no longer be hosting Match of the Day.
He is thought to have agreed to an 18-month deal with the BBC, which will allow him to cover the upcoming FIFA World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico. However, at the conclusion of the 2024–25 season, he will no longer be featured on the broadcaster’s football highlights show. Following the story’s initial publication in the Sun, BBC News announced that an announcement would be made on Tuesday.
The 63-year-old former England striker has been a fixture on Saturday night football fans’ screens for 25 years, having succeeded Des Lynam in 1999.
In October, at a period of heavy speculation about his future, he made a joke about quitting the BBC on an episode of Match of the Day. Lineker introduced the show saying: “Hello. Seven games on the way and it’s my final show … before the international break.”
For his efforts on Match of the Day in 2017, he received a nomination for a National Television award. With an annual salary of £1.35 million, Lineker is one of the corporation’s most well-known presenters and its highest-paid star among those whose earnings are disclosed.
After stating on X that the government’s wording for introducing a restriction on small boat crossings was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s,” he was removed from the BBC’s air in March 2023. However, after some of his coworkers boycotted performances in solidarity, Lineker was brought back. With a 2023–24 salary of £1.35 million, he has been the top paid on-air personality for the company for seven years running.
In an August interview with BBC Breakfast, he discussed his future on Match of the Day. According to Lineker, presenting the show for the past 25 years has been an honour, and he was unsure of how long he would have left to do so.
“It depends how long they want me, I suppose,” he said. “I love doing it at the moment. I’ve still got another year left, at least. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”
Additionally, he recently achieved success with Goalhanger Podcasts, which he created in 2019 and has released podcasts including The Rest is Politics, The Rest is Entertainment, The Rest is History, and The Rest is Football. He co-hosts these shows with Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, co-hosts of Match of the Day.
In addition to being the best scorer in the English game’s premier division for three separate clubs in three different seasons, Lineker is England’s top World Cup scorer.