Gary Lineker has revealed the reason behind his ITV World Cup appearance. On Friday (19 June), the former BBC Match of the Day host was announced to be part of ITV's coverage of Germany v Côte d’Ivoire on Saturday (20 June).
Lineker had previously covered six World Cups during his time at the BBC, and he brought his signature wit to Saturday's coverage. Appearing alongside Laura Woods, he comically began to present the show, saying: "Thank you very much for joining us on ITV for this one. Another day, another game, another channel."
Woods then jokingly interjected with "Gary, that’s my job!" to which he responded: "Sorry, sorry. Old habits!"
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The former footballer is set to host ITV's game show The Box later on this year, and when speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, he said he'd made an appearance to promote it.
He told co-host Micah Richard: "I was making an appearance to promote my show ‘The Box’ which is also on ITV in September. And also I wanted to go and have a little look at the studio. I also wanted to go and promote our Netflix show which I got two mentions in for.
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"It was just for purely professional reasons Micah."
Lineker did talk about wanting to see their set and the Netflix show, adding: "I have been doing a show daily for Netflix, we’re [in] Times Square but I did desperately want to come and see your set. I think it’s absolutely amazing and I can confirm that it is real. What a backdrop."
During ITV's coverage of Germany's match with the Ivory Coast, they took a trip down memory lane with Lineker's own World Cup history. The former England captain then reflected on his golden boot in 1986 and his involvement in the "Hand of God" game against Argentina.
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Lineker was also asked about Harry Kane drawing level with his record World Cup tally of 10 goals for England after scoring a double against Croatia on Wednesday, revealing that he was "genuinely pleased for Harry".
"Obviously it’s taken him an extra World Cup to do it and there is quite a lot of penalties in there, but we’ll give him that," he continued, adding that "Harry is a way better all-round number nine than I was".
When Woods allowed Lineker to take the show into the break, he praised the "fabulous job" that she was doing, before focus returned to the pitch.
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