Gary Lineker Makes Surprise Sky Sports Appearance As New Feature Launched

Gary Lineker made a shock appearance on Sky Sports during the North London derby as the broadcaster prepares to launch a new series.

Since retiring from professional football, Lineker has enjoyed a hugely successful media career.

He started out as a pundit on BBC Radio 5 Live before becoming the main presenter of Match of the Day in 1999.

He left the show earlier this year after admitting he made a serious error of judgement by sharing a pro-Palestine video on Instagram that included a rat emoji, which has historically been used as an antisemitic insult.

Despite leaving the BBC, the former England forward remains a prominent voice in the game through his podcast, The Rest is Football, which he co-hosts with Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.

Lineker has never previously been associated with Sky Sports, but he appeared as a guest on the channel's new show called 'In The Box'.

The segment brings celebrities, comedians and social media influencers together in a room, where they are drip-fed information as the match unfolds, only discovering the result at full-time.

For the North London derby edition, Lineker and comedian Michael McIntyre represented Spurs, while YouTuber ChrisMD was the Arsenal supporter.

Although Lineker is known to be a Leicester City fan, he made more than 100 appearances for Tottenham during his playing career.

While the full video will be released on Monday, Sky Sports aired a snippet during their Super Sunday coverage.

It prompted laughter in the studio from Thierry Henry, while former Spurs striker Les Ferdinand joked that the Tottenham fans were fortunate to have avoided watching the match.

"Tottenham were that bad today," he said.

"It's embarrassing to watch. Halfway through this game, I was hoping I could go in the box with Michael McIntyre.

"I didn't want to watch anymore.

"You can't come to Arsenal in the North London Derby and not put everything on the line."

Lineker stepped down from Match of the Day at the end of the 2024/25 season.

The BBC's flagship football programme is now presented by Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan, who will share duties across the campaign.

With Match of the Day showing Champions League highlights as well as the weekend's fixtures, the trio will have equal billing.

Lineker's departure from the BBC also means he will not front their coverage of next summer's World Cup.

However, he may still appear at the tournament with The Daily Mail reporting that he is set to sign 'an extraordinarily lucrative' deal' with Netflix.