If you are a football fan and have not been living under a rock for the past 8 months, you would know that Gary Lineker promised to do the first Match of the Day of this season in his underwear if Leicester City won the Premier League last season.
Well, Leicester City did win the league and the question that came up was not whether they would be able to retain the title but if Gary Lineker would keep his promise. Twitter has been constantly reminding him of THAT tweet of his and everyone was eager to see if he would keep his promise or not.
The new season finally kicked off today and everyone glued to their television screens as clocked struck 10:30 BST. It was time for BBC’s Match of the Day programme and there he was, Gary Lineker in nothing but white shorts. No t-shirt, no shirt, nothing on the top half of his body. The only thing on the top half of his body was a black wired mic that hung around his neck.
Lineker stood there near the ‘stage’ and presented the opening of the show with a straight face – as if he has been doing the show in the same way for years! Meanwhile, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright giggled at the back and the former Arsenal striker was clearly unable to control his laughter at seeing Gary in his shorts presenting a show that is watched by thousands and thousands of football fans around the world!
Talking about his promise, Gary said “It is a one-off and a sporting miracle that has landed me in my underwear. When I tweeted that silly bet back in December, I categorically knew there was zero chance of Leicester winning the league. Zero chance. It happened but it was magical, it was great.”
Lineker kicked off the show with Leicester City’s defeat at Hull City and stayed in his shorts as Shearer and Wright analysed the game. But as they moved on to the second match, he told viewers: “Enough of this nonsense - I'm going to get dressed!”
And so he did. The programme cut to show the highlights of Pep Guardiola’s first game in charge of Manchester City in the Premier League and this gave Lineker enough time to go back stage and get dressed. As the highlights ended, the programme was back on with Gary sitting there in front of Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, this time, dressed up as he usually does – in a light blueish shirt and dark pants.
Fair play to Gary Lineker for keeping is promise, of doing to the Match of the Day show in his shorts – it takes a lot of courage to stand by your words and to stand in front of the TV camera in such fashion.
