Gary Lineker Net Worth

What Is Gary Lineker's Net Worth?

Gary Lineker is a retired English footballer and sports broadcaster who has a net worth of $35 million. Gary Lineker holds the English record for most goals scored in FIFA World Cup finals play, with ten. His first club was his hometown Leicester City, where he played from 1978 to 1985, scoring 95 goals in 194 appearances. From 1985-86, Lineker was a member of Everton, scoring 30 goals in 41 matches. He moved to Barcelona in 1986, where he scored 42 goals in 103 appearances. Also in 1986, he won the FIFA World Cup Golden Boot.

In 1989, Gary joined Tottenham Hotspur, appearing in 105 games and scoring 67 goals. His final club was Nagoya Grampus Eight; he scored four goals in 18 appearances. Combining his club level and international play, he scored 330 goals in his 16-year career. After his playing days, he joined the BBC and hosted their flagship football program "Match of the Day." In 2003, Lineker was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. He has also written columns for the "The Sunday Telegraph," and in 2013, he began working for the NBC Sports Network. In 2017, it was revealed that Gary Lineker earns a salary of $3 million per year to host "Match of the Day," which made him the highest paid person at the BBC.

Gary is also the founder of Goalhanger Films and Goalhanger Podcasts. Goalhanger Podcasts produced the extremely popular show "The Rest Is History."

Early Life

Gary Lineker was born Gary Winston Lineker on November 30, 1960, in Leicester, England. He is the son of Barry and Margaret Lineker, and he has a younger brother named Wayne, who he played football with during his youth. His parents chose his middle name in honor of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, who had the same birthday as Lineker. Gary's father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all worked as greengrocers, and Barry ran a fruit and vegetable stall at Leicester Market. As a child, Lineker often helped out at his father's stall. Gary, who is white, has said he received racist abuse because of his "darkish skin." Lineker attended Caldecote Road School and the City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School, and he was talented at both rugby and football. He was the captain of Leicestershire Schools cricket team from the ages of 11 to 16, and he played for the Aylestone Park Youth football club, eventually becoming the president of the club. Gary had four O levels when he left school, and one of his teachers stated on his report card that he "concentrates too much on football" and would "never make a living at that." In 1976, Lineker enrolled at Leicester City's youth academy.

Football Career

After he left school in 1977, Gary began his football career with Leicester City, going pro in the 1978–79 season. He scored 19 goals during the 1981–82 season, and during the 1984–85 season, he was tied for First Division's top scorer with 24 goals. Following that season, Lineker signed with Everton for £800,000 and went on to score 40 goals in the 1985–86 season. While playing for England's national team, he won the Golden Boot at the World Cup in 1986, then he signed with Barcelona for £2.8 million for the 1986-87 season and scored 20 goals that season. Barcelona won the 1988 Copa del Ray and the 1989 European Cup Winners' Cup final. Gary scored 42 in 103 La Liga appearances, making him the competition's highest-scoring British player until Gareth Bale surpassed his record in 2016. In July 1989, Lineker signed with Tottenham Hotspur for £1.1 million. He spent three seasons with the club, scoring 67 goals in 105 league games and winning the FA Cup. In November 1991, he signed a two-year contract with the J1 League club Nagoya Grampus Eight, which paid Tottenham Hotspur a £2 million transfer fee. In September 1994, Gary announced his retirement from football.

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Media Career

From 1995 to 2003, Lineker was a team captain on "They Think It's All Over," a sports game show. He was a presenter on the sports program "Grandstand," and he became BBC Sport's highest-paid presenter after the BBC made him its anchorman for football coverage, including "Match of the Day." He also became a presenter for the BBC's golf coverage and for NBCSN's Premier League coverage. In November 2024, Gary announced that he was leaving "Match of the Day" after the end of the 2024–25 Premier League season. In 1994, he signed a £200,000 deal to appear in TV commercials for Walkers snack company. Lineker has also appeared on the television show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?," "Who Do You Think You Are?," and "Ted Lasso" and the in the film "Bend It Like Beckham."

Goalhanger Podcasts & Films

In 2014, he launched the production company Goalhanger Films Ltd., which produced the BBC documentary "Gary Lineker on the Road to FA Cup Glory." Gary runs Goalhanger Podcasts, which produces his podcast "The Rest is Football" as well as the podcasts "The Rest is History" and "The Rest is Politics."

Personal Life

Gary married Michelle Cockayne in July 1986, and they welcomed four sons before divorcing in 2006. Their eldest son survived leukemia as a baby, and he was treated at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital. Lineker is a supporter of the children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent, and he has appeared in videos encouraging people to donate blood. Gary and Michelle were patron of the charitable organizations Leukaemia Busters from 1994 and 2005, and Lineker has also been involved with Cancer Research UK and Fight for Life. Gary wed Danielle Bux on September 1, 2009, in Italy. The couple divorced in 2016, reportedly because Lineker didn't want to have more children. In 1995, Gary became a freeman of the City of Leicester, and he has been called "Leicester's favourite son." In 2002, he backed a £5 million bid to save Leicester City, his former club. After Leicester City was saved from liquidation, Lineker was named honorary Vice President of the club.

In 2017, Gary was one of several British celebrities who owned property in Barbados to be named in the Paradise Papers. According to the Paradise Papers, these celebrities bought the properties through offshore companies, which would allow them to avoid paying local taxes if they decided to sell their properties. During the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, Lineker announced that he would donate £140,000 to the British Red Cross to help fund research of the virus. In March 2023, he won an appeal against HM Revenue and Customs after the company tried to make him pay £4.9 million in income taxes for his work with BT Sport and the BBC from 2013 to 2014 and 2017 to 2018. HM Revenue and Customs claimed that Gary was an employee of both companies at the same time, but a judge ruled that he was actually a freelancer. That same month, Lineker tweeted criticism of the British government's asylum policy, which led to the BBC saying that it considered "his recent social media activity to be a breach of [their] guidelines." The network added that it had "decided Lineker will not present 'Match of the Day' until there's an agreed and clear position on his use of social media." Many of Gary's colleagues pulled out of their BBC Sport roles in solidarity with him, and "Match of the Day" temporarily aired without hosts or studio presentation." Three days after the BBC announced Lineker's suspension, the network ended the suspension and said that it would conduct an independent review of how their social media guidelines should apply to freelancers outside the news.

Awards and Honors

Lineker was named PFA Players' Player of the Year for the 1985–86 season and FWA Footballer of the Year for the 1985–86 and 1991–92 seasons. He was the English First Division top scorer in the 1984–85, 1985–86, and 1989–90 seasons and the English Second Division top scorer in the 1982–83 seasons. In 1986, Gary was the Ballon d'Or runner-up, and he won the Onze de Bronze and FIFA World Cup Golden Boot and was named to the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team. He won the Onze Mondial in 1986 and 1987, and he received the FIFA Fair Play Award in 1990, the FIFA World Player of the Year bronze award in 1991, and the FWA Tribute Award in 1997. In 2003, Gary was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. He was appointed a Visiting Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford in 2020, and Loughborough University presented him with an Honorary Master of Arts in 1992. For his television work, Lineker won Television and Radio Industries Club Awards for Sports Presenter in 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2011.  In 2017, he earned a National Television Awards, UK, nomination for Most Popular TV Presenter for "Match of the Day."

Real Estate

Gary lives in a £4 million mansion in South London. The property includes a home gym, a cinema room, and a garden with a wooden pergola and a fire pit.

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