Gary Lineker's joke attempt after 2017 Champions League final was painfully awkward

Gary Lineker is unquestionably one of the best football presenters in the game.

The former Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona striker has excelled in the role for many, many years now.

Lineker is still the host of BBC's famous Match of the Day programme, while he was also the main man for BT Sport's Champions League coverage for a prolonged period.

And for the most part, he was absolutely brilliant on those big European nights. However, there was the odd forgettable moment, with one in particular after the 2017 Champions League final.

That night in Cardiff, Real Madrid beat Juventus 4-1 to become the first team to win Europe's biggest prize in consecutive seasons since it was rebranded in 1992/93.

After the game, the cameras panned to Gareth Bale getting a piece of one of the goal nets as a memory of the occasion.

That prompted Lineker in the BT Sport studio to try and make a hair-related joke, which backfired spectacularly.

Check out the painfully awkward live-on-air moment here...

Rio Ferdinand stepped in to try and help Lineker out with a hair net reference, but even he couldn't prevent the host from looking rather foolish.

To be fair to ol' Gary, at least he realised the error of his ways and quickly moved on to get back to serious football chat.

Imagine if he'd have kept continuing to think of a witty punchline...

Lineker stepped down from his role at BT Sport after the conclusion of the 2020/21 season, the all-English Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea being his last game.

He tweeted just prior to that match: "Porto's mouth-watering all-English final this weekend will be my final Champions League show for BT Sport.

"I've loved hosting the best club tournament in world football and I'm genuinely