Gary Lineker was photographed leaving his south London home the morning with his Match of the Day exit at the end of the season now confirmed by the BBC. The presenter will stop fronting the Premier League highlights show at the expiry of his contract in 2025.
Lineker emerged from his reported £4million house in south London for an early-morning dog walk on Monday. The 63-year-old wore a jacket, scarf, trousers and boots as he walked through a leafy area.
The BBC have confirmed that Lineker will step aside to focus on presenting the FA Cup in 2025/26 before bowing out at the 2026 World Cup. He will not be Match of the Day's presenter next season, ending a remarkable 26-year run.
A fresh-faced Lineker replaced Des Lynam as host of the late-night Saturday show in 1999. He has hosted Match of the Day in every season since, apart from 2001/02 to 2003/04, when ITV briefly held the rights to the Premier League's highlights package.
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Persistent rumours about Lineker's BBC future have played out in the backdrop to him hosting the show this season. Earlier this year, it was reported that he had decided against fronting the broadcaster's Champions League highlights show. Gabby Logan, who is a contender to replace Lineker, has hosted the programme instead after the BBC won the European tournament rights.
Subsequent claims have suggested that there was still no agreement between Lineker and the BBC over an extension to his contract. His £1.3million-per-year salary makes him the corporation's top-paid star.
Lineker was briefly removed from Match of the Day in March 2023 over social media comments he made about the then-Conservative government's asylum policy. The BBC was forced to broadcast a show with no studio input after guests Ian Wright and Alan Shearer pulled out in support of Lineker.
He subsequently returned the following week but reports of his impending departure have followed him almost ever since.
On October 6, Lineker jokingly referenced those rumours by opening that evening's Match of the Day saying: “Hello. Seven games on the way and it’s my final show… before the international break.”
Speaking about his future on his Rest Is Football podcast in October, Lineker said: "It's been a strange few days - as you know, like Trent [Alexander-Arnold, Virgil [van Dijk] and Mo [Salah], I'm coming to the end of my contract in the summer so it's natural at some point you have to have conversations and they have just started.
"I don't know why it all spiralled out of control. All is okay."
