Sports Poets Society

‘It’s been win-win all the way’ Player, pundit, Pod God… How Gary Lineker reinvented himself (again) If there is an English dream, Gary Lineker has lived it. You can lop his adult life neatly into three slabs, any of which would make him one of Britain’s great success stories: the market trader’s lad from Leicester who captained England and played for Barcelona… ‘I have a lot of female friends who I get on really well with,  so that’s satisfying because I love female company’ Football may be a game of two halves, but Gary Lineker’s remarkable life is a tale of three careers: goal-scoring legend, television host and now podcast god. As the nation’s favourite son starts this third chapter, he opens up about luck, mortality and political provocation 30 Aug 2026 - The Observer Magazine By GEORGE SIMMS The Kaiser of crisps who transitioned relatively seamlessly into a televisual colossus. Now, he’s taken on the role of Pod God as co-owner of Goalhanger, named Britain’s fastest-grow...

‘I don’t need to be sitting there thinking what would Gary do’ Kelly Cates on Match of the Day and Sky Kelly Cates is ready to replace a broadcasting titan by doing it her way – in a busy season ahead on both Sky and BBC ‘To do something new and still have the live football ...  it’s really lovely to have that balance’ 14 Aug 2025 The Guardian Paul MacInnes Kelly Cates is about to begin the busiest year of her career. That, to be fair, is an estimate, because the football presenter and broadcaster has always been a grafter. From Setanta Sports to Channel 5 there are few places where she has not applied her deep knowledge and emotional warmth, and as of this weekend she will be the face of the BBC’s and Sky’s coverage of the Premier League. The action gets under way at a second home, Anfield, from where Cates will host Sky’s Friday Night Football coverage of Liverpool v Bournemouth. This follows two preview shows for the BBC, and precedes her first shift on Match of the Day. Asked w...

It should be seen as a genuine shared failing that the most widely amplified voice here is his 24 May 2025 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport Barney Ronay Welcome to the end, if you will, of a Linekera . As we head towards tomorrow night and last things, last days, last matches, Last Matches of the Last Days , towards the inevitable husky, poignant, carefully scripted farewell, towards the sense, because this is the BBC sofa, of something that feels less like a broadcaster ending his term of employment, more like three men in shiny shirts burying their pet rabbit. As we head towards all of this, it is probably a good time to look back at Gary’s best bits. This is easy enough. For the past 22 years, capped by this weekend’s accelerated farewell from the BBC, Gary Lineker has been an excellent sports broadcaster and an ideal avatar of the courtly, cosy, quietly A-list BBC identity. Not just very good saying things such as “And now to Goodison” in between some football highlights, but also perfect fo...

BBC STUDIOS▲ Gary Lineker’s BBC interview with Amol Rajan  was full of interesting anecdotes, and some contentious talking points too Lineker’s critics have got it wrong. It’s valid to talk about more than sport I had a producer once say:  ‘Can we not talk about domestic violence today?  It’s Friday’ 25 Apr 2025 - The Guardian Max Rushden The most extraordinary revelation to come from Gary Lineker’s interview with Amol Rajan on the BBC is that he’d sometimes come home from school to find Engelbert Humperdinck playing cards with his dad. Surprisingly, almost all the reaction to the conversation has ignored this bombshell – Engelbert apparently not such a big player in the culture war world; best focus on your Middle Easts, your Bravermans, your impartialities, Brian. Of course the job of news outlets is to pick out headlines but it does appear almost no one has watched the whole programme. It’s essentially a nice wide-ranging interview covering the career of one of the be...

OPINIONS? HE’S GOT A FEW … … and Gary Lineker just can’t help sharing them. The football legend turned culture warrior talks punditry, podcasts and politics  with Charlotte Edwardes ‘THE MINUTE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH, IT’S SO TOXIC.  HOW COULD IT BE CONTROVERSIAL TO WANT PEACE?’ 20 Jan 2024 - THE GUARDIAN - Saturday Magazine  Portraits: Shamil Tanna GARY LINEKER HAS asked me to meet him at his house in Barnes at 2.30pm. It’s a miserable wet day in London, so I give myself time and arrive just before 2pm. As I turn into the narrow lane that loops round to his address, who should I see trying to squeeze past my car in a black Mini? His eyes slide towards me, then quickly back to the road. Gary Lineker! Where the hell are you going? I glance in my rear-view mirror to see his indicator blinking before he accelerates into a speedy getaway. I stop and check my phone. Sure enough, he’s crying off. “Could you do tomorrow?” he’s messaged. But I just saw you, I protest. Thirty seconds...

The presenter reflects on the ‘disproportionate’ BBC furore, welcoming refugees into his home and getting a standing ovation in his local M&S ‘As a player I was quite cold but I’m a different human now ...  you have to educate yourself ’ Sid Lowe 3 Jun 2023, The Guardian - Sport  Gary Lineker is squeezed into the back of a Fiat Punto whizzing through Italian streets . All sharp, frantic, narrow turns, something about the scene feels familiar, echoes of the opening to Asif Kapadia’s film on Maradona, and from behind the driver going through the gears there’s a grin. “I’ve never felt so close to Diego,” the former England striker says, voice just audible over the rattle of cobbles. “If only it was Naples.” Instead, this is Rome. Lineker has come to receive a Sport and Human Rights award from Amnesty International . Here, not sticking to sport is cause for commendation, not criticism, still less punishment. “A lot of people like footballers having a voice, using their platfor...