Gary Lineker announces INTENSE new World Cup project as bumper salary is revealed

Gary Lineker and The Rest Is Football have announced a World Cup collaboration with Netflix.

Former England striker Lineker is the host of popular podcast The Rest Is Football and the global streaming platform has picked up the show for an exclusive partnership at World Cup 2026 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Lineker will be joined by former England players Alan Shearer and Micah Richards as well as ‘special guests’ as Netflix takes its latest step into original sports broadcasting.

Gary Lineker will be covering the World Cup after all

Lineker was a stalwart of BBC Sport's big tournament coverage and would have been its lead anchor at the World Cup had he not left the public service broadcaster earlier this year.

The Netflix partnership was announced on Wednesday and it’s going to be a behemoth by sheer weight of content alone. According to The Times, the Netflix deal is “believed to dwarf the £1.35 million salary [Lineker] earned” presenting Match of the Day.

“For this summer’s World Cup, The Rest Is Football is going to be on Netflix,” said Lineker.

“Like the Euros a couple of years ago, we’re going to be doing daily shows throughout the tournament and I’ll be based in New York City for the whole thing.

“The show will have all the glitz and glamour of the Big Apple and we know Micah loves glitz and glamour.

“We’ll also have loads of fantastic guests joining us throughout the summer.”

Lineker is promising video and audio versions of the daily show, which will be available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as well as Netflix.

The former Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona striker, who is ranked at no.6 in FourFourTwo's list of the greatest ever British players to play abroad, presented Match of the Day for 26 years before he departed the BBC in May.

He has enjoyed fresh success in podcasting after co-founding Goalhanger, the production company behind The Rest Is Football and its sister programmes.

Lineker made 80 international appearances for England including at the World Cup in 1986 and 1990. He won the Golden Boot with six goals at the 1986 tournament in Mexico and went on to score 48 in total for his country.

The World Cup will take place in June and July next year, with matches being played in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Qualified teams will discover their opponents this Friday, when the glitz and glamour of FIFA are temporarily transported to Washington, D.C. for the World Cup draw.

England and Scotland will be in Pot 1 and Pot 3 respectively having qualified automatically, but the remaining home nations must each navigate a play-off path to take up a berth at the finals.

The play-offs take place in March and the semi-finals see Wales take on Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Ireland face Czech Republic, and Northern Ireland look to upset the odds against four-time World Cup winners Italy.