Gary Lineker says he was ‘a bit emotional’ after final Match Of The Day

Former Match Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker has said he was “a little bit emotional” after hosting his final episode of the BBC show.

Speaking to pundits Micah Richards and Alan Shearer on the Rest Is Football podcast, which is produced by his company Goalhanger Podcasts, Lineker, 64, said he struggled to stop the tears as a montage played during the football highlights programme on Sunday.

Lineker told the men, who regularly appeared on the show with him: “I was a bit tired, and a bit emotional last night, I’m fine.

“I’m good, and thank you both for your very kind words last night. I must say, when they played the montage, obviously, I knew something was coming, but I didn’t know what it was at all.

“(I was) struggling to keep myself (together), especially when I saw my boys, you know what it’s like when it’s family and stuff, and thankfully that wasn’t the last clip, because I’d gone at that point, I needed time to get myself together to try and get through the end of the show.”

The former Barcelona striker wiped away tears after the montage, which featured messages from pundits past and present including Richards, Shearer, former Liverpool defender and pundit Alan Hansen, Danny Murphy and former Arsenal striker Ian Wright.

There were also words from Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and former Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri, and former team-mates Alan Smith, Paul Gascoigne and Peter Shilton, as well as Lineker’s sons George, Harry, Tobias and Angus.

On Monday’s episode of the Rest Is Football Lineker also spoke about losing the copy sheet of information to read out over the Premier League table during his last show, meaning he had to ad-lib.

He said on the podcast: “For the