Former professional football players and pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards have been announced as the co-hosts of The Rest is Football podcast alongside Gary Lineker.
The twice-weekly sports podcast is set to premiere 7 August, ahead of the new Premier League season. Each episode will feature the three co-hosts reviewing matches of the week, debating topics within the game, and answering questions from their listeners.
“Our podcast will be the inside take on football, discussing current topics but also telling tales and gossip from our own careers and the players we’ve played with and against,” said Lineker. “I have known Alan for many years, we’re great friends and we’ve worked together for a long time. No doubt he’ll mention, once or twice, that he’s the all-time leading Premier League goalscorer.”
“I think Micah adds something, a huge personality - even if it is just his laugh that would be enough! He’s younger than Alan and myself, in touch with a lot of the current players and an authority on the modern game. He’s definitely got the X-factor.”
The Rest is Football comes from Lineker’s independent production company Goalhanger Podcasts, which he co-founded alongside managing director Jack Davenport and creative director Tony Pastor in 2022.
It represents the latest extension of Goalhanger’s “The Rest is…” podcast franchise with previous titles including The Rest is Politics with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, The Rest is History with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, and the upcoming The Rest is Money podcast with Robert Peston and Steph McGovern.
Davenport told PodPod in a previous episode of the podcast that Goalhanger has been waiting for the right moment and opportunity to launch a football podcast fronted by Lineker, and wanted it to feature other attractive, big names in the way that other Goalhanger podcasts have.
“When we announce the talent, who's gonna be with Gary, they are A-list, ex-footballer pundits; they're big names and I think that hasn't been possible for very long in podcasting, to afford those kinds of people just for a pure podcast context,” said Davenport. “We're really excited about what we can bring to it and we would love it to be a big success - we're gonna throw everything at it and I think it's got a really good chance.”
