Gary Lineker leads Micah Richards and Alan Shearer through a sprawling New York apartment, its large windows overlooking the bright lights and bustle of Times Square below. Richards’ booming laugh fills the space as he discovers a bar, a foosball table, a darts board; the ultimate World Cup bachelor pad. And for the next five weeks, Lineker’s home will also be on Netflix.
Of course, Lineker’s exit from the BBC came earlier than expected. In another universe, he would have signed off in July after presenting his seventh World Cup final for the broadcaster. For a certain generation, Lineker’s presence fronting the tournament and his relationship with the BBC felt like it could last forever. But, as he told The Louis Theroux Podcast this week, it was a marriage that had started to “run out of love”. Some of the opinions he shared on social media should not have resulted in the controversies that overshadowed the final months of his 26 years with the BBC. But sharing a picture of a rat alongside a pro-Palestine social media post, even if accidental, was indefensible and, for his aspirations of covering another World Cup with the BBC, a fatal mistake.
