Gary Lineker is best known for his very successful footballing career and now he has turned his hand to presenting game shows again, with his ITV gameshow Sitting on a Fortune returning for a second series. He has hosted Match of the Day since 1999.
The footballing star was born and raised in Leicester, in the Midlands, and began his football career at his hometown club Leicester City. After reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup with Leicester Gary moved to Everton.
At Everton, he scored 40 goals in 57 games during the 1985 to 1986 season and reached the FA Cup final with the club. A year later Gary joined the Spanish club Barcelona and won the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.
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After Barcelona Gary played for Tottenham Hotspur, where he won the FA Cup, and the Japanese football club Nagoya Grampus. Gary also played for England during his career earning 80 caps and scoring 48 goals.
He is also one of the few football plays to have never been given a yellow or red card while playing. After retiring from football Gary turned to presenting and in 1999 started presenting the BBC flagship football show Match of the Day, a role he currently still holds.
Earlier in 2023 Gary came under fire and was forced to step back from presenting Match of the Day over his controversy about his criticism of the British government's immigration policy on Twitter. On Friday, March 10 the BBC said Lineker would step back from his job on Match of the Day because it considered "his recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines".
It added it had "decided Lineker will not present Match of the Day until there's an agreed and clear position on his use of social media". In solidarity with Gary many football presenters, including Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, Alex Scott and Jermaine Jenas also pulled out of presenting their presenting roles meaning Match of the Day went ahead with no presenters.
On Monday, March 13 Gary's suspension was ended and the BBC announced it would initiate an independent review of its social media guidelines and how they apply to freelancers outside news. Director-General Tim Davie stated that Gary had agreed to abide by the corporation's editorial guidelines until the review into them has been completed.
Gary has been married twice, first to Michelle Cockayne and then to Danielle Bux. Gary had four sons with Michelle, George, Harry, Tobias and Angus. George had a rare form of leukaemia as a baby, where he was treated at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Since then Gary supports children's cancer charities CLIC Sargent, Leukaemia Busters and Cancer Research. After marrying in 1986 Gary and Michelle divorced in 2006 and both parties have stated the split was amicable, as reported by BBC News.
In 2009 Gary married Danielle and the couple split in 2016. It is believed they split as Gary did not want to have any more children as The Telegraph reported.
Sitting on a Fortune begins on ITV1 at 7pm on Sunday, May 28. You can keep up to date with the latest TV and showbiz news by signing up to the newsletter here.
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