‘It wasn't meant to end this way': Gary Lineker signs off with his final Match of the Day
bade farewell to Match of the Day and his career at the
BBC
on Sunday night in the only appropriate manner: with a montage.
There were deep breaths, noises off, the checking of notes. There were tears and celebrations. There was Bobby Robson and Johan Cruyff. There were tributes from colleagues, peers, friends and family and an invitation to 'go gallivanting' from Gazza.
'You don't believe it but you will be missed,' said
Pep Guardiola
.
The 64-year-old largely held it together as he was taken down memory lane and ushered towards the exit door of the BBC's top sports programme after 26 years of hosting. Only a sniffle betrayed his deeper feelings as he signed off for the last time. 'Rather like my football career, everyone else did the hard work and I got the plaudits,' he said. 'It's been utterly joyous.'
READ MORE
Lineker has often described the opportunity to be a custodian of a programme he himself had grown up watching as 'a privilege'. In truth, the former England captain's stint as presenter dwarfs that of every other host. From David Coleman to Des Lynam, the host of Match of the Day has also been the face of the BBC's sports programming and Lineker continued that tradition, but only his presence has been consistent across an entire generation.
After an initial stint as a pundit, Lineker's presenting debut came on August 7th, 1999. He introduced himself with a Lynam-esque moment of fourth-wall breaking. 'Hey, tell you what, football's back,' he said, before adding: 'Any good? Did I get the job?'
[
The full-time whistle blows for Lineker
Opens in new window
]
His first match was Chelsea at home to promoted Sunderland, a thrashing led by Gianfranco Zola; his punditry panel Alan Hansen and Trevor Brooking.
Twenty-six years later and Lineker saw out his last 90 minutes of action and analysis in the company of Alan Shearer and Micah Richards. Both men are bigger, louder and snappier than their predecessors. They also work with Lineker all week long as part of The Rest Is Football, the hit podcast produced by Lineker's Goalhanger studio. There, their personalities are given looser rein and banter gushes freely. The more mannered versions of the trio on MOTD can seem a little awkward by comparison.
Over the years Lineker found a distinctive voice as a broadcaster, conveying his enthusiasm for the game while adopting an avuncular approach to the athletes he was watching. He also indulged his fondness for wordplay and made many deprecating references to the achievements of his career.
His boyish looks endured for decades, his ageing betrayed only by his whitening hair. In 2015 he agreed to present MOTD in 'just my undies' if the team he had once played for and always supported, Leicester City, won the Premier League. The Foxes duly pulled off the miracle and Lineker half-honoured his commitment: the white bloomers were more shorts than pants.
At that point in his career it was as close to controversy as Lineker had come. The player who never received a yellow card had become the good guy host, even-handed in his observations and gentle in his humour. But his pants pledge came via a post on Twitter and Lineker's social media activity was to change the perception the public had of him.
He used Twitter to articulate his personal political views. His support for refugees brought attacks from the press and strangers into his home. Two years ago, criticism of the previous government's language on asylum led to debates over impartiality and a brief suspension, only for Lineker's pundit peers to walk out in solidarity.
Scrutiny of Lineker's activity away from the studio has only grown since, at the same time as his independence from the BBC has deepened. The decision that Lineker would begin to step away from his BBC responsibilities was made last autumn, with the promise of a last dance at the men's World Cup next summer. Lineker's decision two weeks ago to repost content
relating to the Gaza conflict that contained an antisemitic symbol
then put an end to plans for an extended farewell.
'It wasn't meant to end this way,' was how Lineker opened his final show, but there was to be no confessional. Of course it was a set up for a joke. 'With the title race over, the Champions League was all we had left to talk about,' said Lineker as Richards grimaced keenly, but the camera didn't linger.
As ever with a show that is edited with military precision, the match action had to be cued up. 'We'll take it in table order,' Lineker said. The show rolled on.
There were little chuckles at the prospect of free pints at Shearer's Bar at St James' Park and a recital of law 12 relating to the control of the ball in a goalkeeper's hand. The Chelsea defender Levi Colwill was compared to a 'prime Lineker in the box' by Richards and giggles were had over unrevealed remarks relating to Sunderland made by Shearer in the green room.
Gary Lineker presenting his final Match of the Day with Alan Shearer and Micah Richards. Photograph: BBC News
There was a graphic that got the West Ham manager wrong and Lineker momentarily confused Brighton and Bournemouth. It was all as familiar and as comforting as a warm bath. Then, finally, the plug was pulled. - Guardian
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Five things we learned from the Lions' series win over the Wallabies
On the whistle A penny for the thoughts of match officials, a community that takes an enforced vow of silence, foisted on them by world Rugby. This series reminded everyone that it is impossible to get uniformity when it comes to some of rugby's laws. Putting aside the large dose of subjectivity that infected the debate around 'Ruck-gate,' in the second Test, and the advocacy for penalty or no penalty, none of World Rugby, supporters, players, former players, media and pundits were able (or in some cases willing) to adjudicate clearly, and say definitely and publicly what the correct decision should have been in Jac Morgan's clear-out of Carlo Tizzano. The reason? They can't. Too often the breakdown's a lottery. The officiating in the third Test was very poor. Too many cheap shots allowed to go unpunished. Way too lax, especially in the conditions. Collectively weak from the officials. Who is Ireland's greatest ever Lion? Listen | 26:49 Player welfare Garry Ringrose's decision to speak up when he found himself unable to shake off concussive after effects struck the right sort of blow for the future wellbeing of a sport. It also served as a reminder that for all the protocols in place around brain injury and head trauma, unless the players are willing to be forthright in communicating how they feel in the wake of such incidents, there will remain a grey area surrounding the return to play protocols. It's not an exact science and should never be regarded as such, but that advocacy has to come from those who experience the symptoms. Slogans like 'when in doubt, sit them out' push the right policy, but the players have to play a part. Garry Ringrose during the Lions' game against the First Nations & Pasifika XV in Melbourne. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho It took courage for Ringrose to make his decision, the right one, and therefore miss out on fulfilling a childhood dream of playing in a Lions Test match, but his selfless act will hopefully encourage others to be similarly brave. Commander-in-chief Putting aside the relative strength or otherwise of rugby in Australia ahead of the three Tests, the series was hotly contested and Andy Farrell did a great job – despite watching his side lose the Third Test – and in the process reminded all of his standing as a coach. It has not always been an easy task on the basis that potshots were taken as to the number of Ireland/Leinster players in the squad, particularly when the injury-forced call-ups rolled in, but he consistently made informed decisions that had the desired and pivotal effect. Lions head coach Andy Farrell ahead of the Lions' final Test against the Wallabies in Sydney. Photograph: David Davies/PA Perhaps the most obvious one to focus on is in Farrell ignoring the flak about selecting Tadhg Beirne and Tom Curry in the backrow for the first Test. Not only did they produce performances of rare quality in that match, but the former won player of the series, while Curry could only have been a fingernail behind. A favourite to lead the Lions in four years to New Zealand all things being equal in the interim. Forwards win matches The old rugby adage that 'forwards win matches and backs decide by how much,' was given further credence by this series. In the first Test, the Lions' pack dominated the collisions and the gainline for nearly two-thirds of the match, thereby allowing their halfbacks to boss the game and give the three-quarter line the perfect possession and position to play off that dominance. It was only when Australia got a foothold in the game physically following replacements on both sides that they were able to close the gap. Lions forwards Tadhg Beirne, Ben Earl and Tom Curry after the third Test against the Wallabies. Photograph:It was the reverse in the second Test as the Wallabies, with Rob Valetini and Will Skelton to the fore, won the contact battle and therefore were able to play off that front foot ball to great effect. Again, it was the bench, this time for the Lions, that turned the game in their favour, but unlike the Wallabies the previous week, they managed to find the winning line in the nick of time with Hugo Keenan's late try. In the third Test the Wallabies' pack won the match. Home-side pride Winning the third Test represents a huge shot in the arm for rugby in Australia and momentum that Joe Schmidt 's side can hopefully take into the Rugby Championship despite the short-term compromising travel logistics. Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt after Australia's win against the Lions in the final Test of the series. Photograph:The Wallabies were convincing winners in the final Test but it may inspire some frustration on their part that they let a winning position slip through their fingers in the second Test. How much of an edge being 2-0 up in the series took off the Lions' performance in Sydney will be a subject of debate but Australia deserve credit for the way in which they managed the conditions to not alone be physically dominant but also technically better in several facets of the game, notably the lineout, the breakdown and the kicking game. Schmidt has pulled together a squad that shows promise and ultimately one that Les Kiss will look to build on from November.
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Paris Olympics, one year on: ‘It's a very difficult pill to swallow. It probably always will be'
A year ago, an army of 136 Olympians marched into your livingroom. They occupied your telly and made your phone beep. They led the news bulletins and your small talk. You were on first-name terms. You said you would never forget Paris . Do you remember? Have you thought about them much since? For a sun-kissed fortnight the greatest Olympics in 100 years of Ireland at the Games was a lavish banquet for national morale. In sport's great sushi bar, though, the carousel keeps turning and soon there were other tasty plates under your eyes. You were hungry again, for something else. Moving on was easy for you. For the athletes, it is rarely so simple. The year after the Olympics is tricky. It's like Wile E Coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons, his legs still spinning as he runs off a cliff. For the athletes, the Olympics had been the ground under their feet, not just for two weeks, but for years. Then it is cut from under them. 'There's always an anticlimax,' says Eoin Rheinisch, a three-time Olympian, and Head of Performance Life Skills at the Institute of Sport. 'You're waiting for this thing to happen for years and then it's over so quickly. There's a coming down period for everyone involved, even for the medallists, because eventually that limelight comes off them a little bit. READ MORE 'It's the ones who are ready to set a new goal who get on with it, but a lot of people struggle with that. For first-time Olympians – and this was certainly my experience – you come back, and you haven't thought about what's next. Everything has been focused on this one thing for so long. 'Then you come home and for me, personally, the following year felt like a complete disaster. I really struggled to be motivated by any of the usual [canoe slalom] races you'd go to – World Cups or World Championships or Europeans. They're just not as big as the Olympic Games.' After the Olympics, everybody has a different landing. Seven medals was a record haul for Ireland at the Paris Games but that was the tip of the pyramid. Underneath were the usual stories of missed targets and broken dreams. Most of those athletes just flashed before our eyes. Aifric Keogh, chair of the Olympic Federation of Ireland Athletes Commission, at the federation's AGM in Dublin in July. Photograph: Seb Daly/Sportsfile In boxing, Kellie Harrington won gold for the second Olympics in a row, but Ireland sent a team of 10 boxers to Paris, and the others won just one bout between them. In rowing Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh expected to win a medal and, in the event, they didn't even reach the final of the women's pairs. Outcomes like that cannot be swallowed whole. The chewing makes your jaws sore. [ The psychologist preparing Ireland's Olympic team for glory: 'There is a lot of last-minute psych preparation' Opens in new window ] 'I personally felt I was in better shape in Paris that I was in Tokyo,' says Keogh, who was part of the women's four that won bronze at the 2020 Games. 'Going into Tokyo the medal was the dream, but I probably didn't really believe it until it happened, whereas going into Paris I fully believed we were capable of doing it. 'It's not even so much about the result itself on paper [they finished eighth], it was the performance I think that really upset us. If we had our best race out there and we came fifth or sixth that probably would have been an easier thing to walk away from. Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in Paris during the 2024 Games. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho 'Fiona and I talked about it. We had an amazing season. Every single day was a dream with her. We won three international medals – in every event we entered until that week in Paris. We just happened to have our worst possible days on the most important ones. It's a very difficult pill to swallow. Still is. It probably always will be.' Supports have been designed for any number of outcomes because exits from the Games can be steep. Not everyone holds their footing. Dr Karen Howells, an academic and sports psychologist, told the New York Times after last year's Games that she had 'not yet met an Olympian who hasn't experienced' what is often called the post-Olympic blues. Rhasidat Adeleke after the women's 400m Olympic final. Lately she has laboured under a run of dull form. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho After the Tokyo Games a study of 49 Danish Olympians and Paralympians showed that 27 per cent of them reported 'below average wellbeing or moderate to severe depression.' What seemed like a counter-intuitive finding, though, was that 40 per cent of athletes who had achieved their goals still reported 'below average wellbeing' when the Games were over. Either way, the Olympics had left a mark. In the Institute of Sport a number of off-ramps and guard rails have been put in place. As soon as the Olympics finished all the athletes were contacted by a transition psychologist for an initial debrief, followed six weeks later by deeper exploration of their experience. [ From the archive: The fitness fallacy: You can't outrun a mental-health problem Opens in new window ] 'They would have been contacted within days of their event,' says Rheinisch. 'A separate transition psychologist has been brought on staff to manage that process. There is also a very clear process between our team [Life Performance Skills] and the psychology team, so there were multiple checkpoints. 'When the dust settles, they're contacted again to do a more formal debrief and a bit more unpacking of the experience. It's not about the result, it's more about, 'What was it like for you? What's going through your head now? Where to next?' 'At that point, if someone is struggling, they can get clinical psychology support from the team – if needed. There are quite a few safety nets in place. But it does still require the athlete to engage with that. They can still say, 'I don't want to take the call,' or 'I'm not affected'.' For some athletes, it was the end of the road. By the close of last year 23 athletes had retired from the carding system – the means by which Sport Ireland funds elite athletes. Not all those athletes had made it to the Olympics or the Paralympics, but the churn in the system was much greater than usual. Among the high-profile athletes, Harrington retired and so too did Thomas Barr, Ellen Keane and Eve McCrystal. Thomas Barr in the 2024 Olympics 4x400m mixed relay heats in the Stade de France. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho For everyone there is a parachute system in place. Each athlete's funding for Olympic year would have continued until the end of 2024, but for this year they would have been given 50 per cent of last year's grant while they found their feet. They also had continued access to the athlete support services at the Institute for the first six months of this year. After the Paris Games, at 32 years of age, Keogh was another of the athletes who stepped away. She had toyed with the idea after Tokyo but this time there were no doubts or second thoughts. The future was blurry. 'I always thought I did a good job of keeping up some sort of study, keeping up some bit of work while I was training – on and off, depending on the demands of the year,' says Keogh. 'But at the same time, if someone asked me [after the Olympics], 'Well, what do you want to do now?' I still didn't have the answer. It was a blank page. 'I felt like I was doing everything right [while a full-time athlete] but I didn't know exactly where I wanted to go. I still don't really, to be honest. I had those six weeks post-Games to maybe shut off and rest and then kind of say, 'Okay, stick your head out of the sand. What are you going to do now? Open the laptop and figure out your life.' Last November the Institute of Sport organised a gathering of 40 'athlete friendly employers' as an opportunity for networking. Keogh knocked on one of their doors and it opened. 'The life skills department put me in touch with my current employers so I'm on an athlete transition programme with JP Morgan. They open the door to athletes on the basis that we have all these transferable skills and they give us a chance to find our feet within the world. Swimmers Mona McSharry, with her bronze, and Daniel Wiffen, with his gold and bronze medals, last August. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho 'It took a while, and it is still taking a while to get used to the different life. Rowing is crazy. It's only when I left the bubble that I realised how insane it all is – dedicating every moment of every day of every week to it.' Many others returned to the arena, though, some of them slowly. The first year of a new Olympic cycle is not straightforward. Stuff happens too. Rhys McClenaghan had surgery on his shoulder. Daniel had appendicitis. After a long road-trip around the United States in a camper van with her best friend, Mona McSharry didn't return to the pool until New Year's Eve. For the World Championships in Singapore this week she reckons she was about '90 per cent' fit. That left her short. Wiffen felt 'weak' and surrendered both of his world titles. On Thursday he pulled out of his remaining events. Not himself. Not the ball of fire he was in Paris. Rhasidat Adeleke has laboured under a run of dull form. She pulled out of the National Championships this week and was a late withdrawal from the Diamond League meeting in Monaco last month. In three 400m races at Diamond League events this season she has failed to break 50 seconds. 'Just making sure I can stay healthy and stay motivated and disciplined and stay on the road to Tokyo [World Championships in September],' she said in London last month. Did she worry about motivation and discipline last season? Different year. Kate O'Connor in the heptathlon high jump in last year's Olympics. This year she has won medals at two major championships. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Everyone is trying to turn the page. Boxing has appointed a new high performance director; rowing is still looking for one. Paul O'Donovan was slow returning to water and by the time he did Fintan McCarthy had a different partner for the European Championships – where he won bronze alongside Konan Pazzaia. With the lightweight programme scrapped for LA, McCarthy and O'Donovan must compete as heavyweights now. Trials for the World Championships were held on Inniscarra Lake this week. In the new Olympic cycle, it feels like the end of the beginning for them. Others have flourished this year. Kate O'Connor has already won medals at two major championships and so has Nicola Tuthill. Lara Gillespie made a brilliant start to her first appearance in the Tour de France. Eve McMahon has climbed to number one in the world rankings in her sailing class. For all of them Paris was their first Games. In kicking on, they have wasted no time. Liam Jegou returned to competition in March. In Paris, his story was heartbreaking. In the final of the canoe slalom, he brushed against the last gate and the penalty he incurred dropped him from the silver medal position to 7th. He couldn't just walk away from Paris and shut the door behind him. Liam Jegou reacts after being ruled out of medal contention in the men's canoe slalom final in last year's Olympics. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho 'It's a weird one to think back on,' he says now, 'because on the one hand it's a great memory, making the final at the Olympics and coming so close to a medal. But it also stings – even with time. I think it was more in the winter that it started to sink in a bit more. Even towards the first races of the season, when you're back struggling again, you look back on how big a moment that was. It's a hard one to describe. It's been up and down. 'I had a hard time with the first couple of races of the season. Maybe that's why [the hangover from Paris]. It's hard to know. I didn't train less but it didn't work out as well. I don't know how to say it – I had less oomph.' Jegou's sights are set on LA. Not everybody will have that opportunity. A few months ago, the IRFU scrapped its men's sevens programme. Keogh had barely taken over as chair of the Athletes Commission when the news broke. 'That was quite stressful,' says Keogh. 'It was shocking. It's one thing when the IOC [International Olympic Committee] is not hosting your sport with a Games, but when it's your own federation making that call, that can be a tough pill to swallow. You talk to the players and make sure that transition is supported as well as possible, but you never want that to happen again to any other sport.' The LA Games are only 1,077 days away. A clock somewhere is ticking.
Irish Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Patrick Kielty in line for new Late Late contract following Cat Deeley split
Late Late Show star Patrick Kielty wants to host the smash hit chat show long-term despite the break-up of his marriage to Cat Deeley. RTE executives are fully supportive of him and prepared to offer the chatterbox comedian a lucrative new deal when his current €250,000 a year contract expires next May, we can reveal. Friends of the couple are adamant that Kielty, 54, working in Ireland had nothing to do with the marriage split and Paddy and Cat, 48, had effectively been living apart in the same house for over a year. One source said: 'He was spending on average two nights a week in Ireland. He would usually fly in on Thursday and do the show live on Friday nights, 30 times a year. 'He would then drive up north and do his BBC Five Live radio show on Saturday mornings from the Belfast studios and fly back to London afterwards. 'He still saw plenty of his wife and the two sons. Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley (Image: Getty Images) 'The problem was the personal relationship between them just seemed to break down for whatever reasons. They are both strong personalities who speak their mind. Neither was seeing anyone else, there was definitely no third party involved.' Paddy has now done two seasons of the Late Late Show since the departure of Ryan Tubridy. RTE said he has been a roaring success and has completely stabilized and grown the ratings, which fluctuate between 400,000 to 500,000 a week now between the live audience and the RTE Player. But crucially for the national broadcaster, advertisers and sponsors have come running back to its flagship No 1 show. One RTE insider said: 'Paddy Kielty has been like a breath of fresh air here. 'He has come in with his own ideas and transformed and improved the Late Late Show, making it relevant again. 'He has also improved the calibre of guests and he has no problem getting on the phone and persuading some top stars to come to Dublin. 'Absolutely no-one on the show knew he was having marital difficulties because he kept it to himself. Kielty took over hosting the Late Late Show from Ryan Tubridy in September 2023 (Image: PA) 'When he comes to Dublin he is strictly business, extremely professional and doesn't talk about his personal life. 'He hardly ever mentioned his wife during his two years here and she never came to Ireland to watch his show which is in itself very strange. 'All the Late Late team have great time for him because he is a very humble down to earth fella. 'Everyone is devastated that his marriage is over but in the high-stakes, highly-pressurised showbiz world, these things happen.' Kielty has made it clear he really enjoys being back in Ireland and presenting The Late Late Show. He has told friends he would like to renew his contract at the end of his three-year term and keep presenting the show – and top executives in RTE let him know privately they want to keep him. RTE sources said any talks on a new deal haven't started yet but they expect it to get sorted over the coming year. Kielty and Cat would have been married 13 years this September. Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty in happier times (Image: hoto by) They lived in a mansion in Beverly Hills for several years after they tied the knot in Rome in 2012 while she presented the popular American show So You Think You Can Dance. They and their two sons Milo, 9, and James, 7, returned to London in 2020. Cat resurrected her TV career in the UK when she took over as co- presenter on the This Morning daytime show on ITV and Virgin Media along with Ben Shephard in March last year following the controversial departure of Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield. The €600,000 a year job meant she was up at 5am and into the studio from Monday to Thursday every week. No one suspected their marriage was on the rocks. However, when Paddy's mother Mary died in March, eyebrows were raised when Cat and the children didn't show up for the funeral in his home village of Dundrum, Co Down. His sons adored their Irish granny and spent their summers with her, with the elder lad playing Gaelic football. Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley attend the London Premiere of "Ballywalter" at The May Fair Hotel on September 18, 2023 in London, England. (Image: 2023 David M. Benett) The Late Late broadcaster is a very committed father and family man and will continue to live in London to be near his kids. The RTE source added: 'He will be back here in September when we go back on air and he will fly in and out from London doing his thing. 'Knowing Paddy he will give the show 110% and he won't let this personal setback hamper his career. 'You can expect the new season of the Late Late to be bigger and better than ever.' Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
