Gary Lineker is set to leave his role presenting Match of the Day at the end of the season, according to BBC News.
The former England striker will then leave the BBC after fronting the corporation’s coverage of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, The Sun reports.
The 63-year-old took over as host of Match of the Day from Des Lynam in 1999, having started as a presenter on BBC Radio Five Live and Grandstand.
In March last year, Lineker, who regularly topped public lists of the corporation’s highest earners, was briefly suspended from presenting the programme after his tweet about the British government’s asylum policy sparked a row about BBC presenters expressing political views on social media.
In solidarity with Lineker, a number of fellow presenters and pundits including Alan Shearer and Ian Wright refused to appear on the programme, meaning an episode was reduced to 20 minutes and aired without its host, pundits and commentary. Lineker was reinstated just over a week later.
In August 2016 Lineker made good on an earlier promise to present the show in his underpants after his boyhood club Leicester won the Premier League.
Mark Chapman, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott have immediately been installed as the front-runners to replace Lineker in the role. One prospective replacement, Jermaine Jenas, was axed by the BBC in September following an investigation into inappropriate behaviour.
Speculation had been mounting over Lineker’s future since an interview with BBC Breakfast in August in which he said he looked forward to “another year doing it, at least”.
Last week Lineker, who turns 64 at the end of November, admitted he would “have to slow down at some point”, and intimated to Esquire magazine that he may seek to focus full-time on his successful podcast business.
Lineker said: “I could do. Whether that will be the case I don’t know. At some point, I have to slow down somewhere… I’m getting old.”
While confirmation of Lineker’s departure may not come until Tuesday, Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy paid tribute to the long-serving presenter.
Former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder Murphy told talkSPORT: “I didn’t know.
“I knew the contract was up at the end of the season. So there’s been a lot of talk about it. I am a little bit surprised.
“Gary’s a friend of mine and he’s been phenomenal to me since the day I walked in the building. And a warm, charismatic, intelligent man who knows his football and has become part of everybody’s furniture, if you like, on a Saturday evening.
“And I’ll never forget how he treated me and how welcome he made me, how good he made me feel.
“He’s getting on a bit, just because he looks good for his age doesn’t mean he isn’t old. He’s getting tired in his old age, probably wants to just cook his Sunday roast.”