Gary Lineker: From World Cup top scorer to Match Of The Day host

Gary Lineker, who retired from an impressive football career with the England record for most goals scored at world cups, has been Match Of The Day host for 25 years.

The Leicester-born footballer, who is reportedly stepping down from the BBC’s football highlights show at the end of the season, began his career at Leicester City, the club he has supported since childhood, in 1978.

The 63-year-old striker scored 103 goals for the Foxes in all competitions before signing with Everton for £800,000 in 1985.

He scored 40 goals in 57 games for the Toffees in his only season with the Liverpool-based side, before his six goals for England at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico won him the competition’s golden boot award and attracted the attention of Spanish football giants Barcelona.

Moving to the Catalan side in 1986, Lineker went on to become the highest scoring British player in La Liga, Spain’s highest football division, under English manager Terry Venables. His record 42 goals was only beaten by Welsh winger Gareth Bale in 2016.

Lineker spent three years in Spain before moving to Tottenham Hotspur in July 1989 for £1.1 million.

He played a part in England’s run to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy, which resulted in a defeat on penalties against West Germany.

After the match, Lineker, who captained the Lions from 1990 to 1992, coined the phrase: “Football is a simple game: 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win.”

He won the 1991 FA Cup final with Spurs, beating Nottingham Forest 2-1 despite having a goal controversially disallowed for offside and Forest goalkeeper Mark Crossley saving a penalty.

In 1992, Lineker became the first English footballer to play in Japan’s highest division, the J League, when he joined Nagoya Grampus Eight for £2 million.

He retired after an injury-hit two-year spell at the club which saw him play just 23 times.

Throughout his career Lineker was renowned for never receiving a yellow or red card booking from the referee.

Following his retirement, Lineker joined BBC Radio 5 Live as a football pundit before becoming a team captain on the sports game show They Think It’s All Over from 1995 to 2003.

In 1997 he took over as host of Grandstand when then-presenter Desmond Lynam was at Aintree for the Grand National which was abandoned due to a bomb alert.

He replaced Lynam as presenter of the BBC’s flagship football highlights programme Match Of The Day in 1999, when Lynam defected to rival ITV.

Lineker would become the corporation’s highest-paid presenter, with his current annual salary estimated to be £1.35 million a year.

As well as relinquishing his Match Of The Day role, The Sun reports Lineker will leave BBC Sport entirely after presenting the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada.