Gary Lineker has said it is the “right time” for him to leave Match of the Day after presenting the BBC football programme for more than two decades.

Speaking on his podcast, The Rest is Football, the 63-year-old said his time on the show had been “an absolute joy and privilege” but it was time for “someone else to take the helm” as the BBC looks to make changes to the show.

Lineker will step down as host of the football highlights programme at the end of the season but will continue to present coverage of the FA Cup in 2025-26 and the World Cup in 2026.

“It has been an absolute joy and privilege to present such an iconic show for the BBC, but all things have to come to an end,” he said on his podcast.

“It came at a point where really the BBC and Match of the Day, they’ve got the rights for another three years, the cycle starts from next season so it felt like if I just do one more year it would be a bit weird.”

The former England striker added: “I bowed out in my football career when I felt it was the right time. I feel this is now the right time.

“I think the next contract they’re looking to do Match of the Day slightly differently, so I think it makes sense for someone else to take the helm.”

Lineker refused to speculate who would be taking his place, amid rumours that it could be Mark Chapman, the regular Match of the Day 2 presenter, the Football Focus host Alex Scott or the BBC sports presenter Gabby Logan.

“Obviously I don’t know who it’ll be, and I would never tell publicly my preference, I don’t think that’d be the right thing to do – but whoever it is, I would say be yourself,” he said.

“I had to fill the ginormous shoes of a certain Des Lynam. I would say just be yourself and enjoy it, it’s a wonderful programme to be a part of. It was brilliant before I took over, and it will be brilliant after I leave.”

Lineker has hosted Match of the Day since 1999 and will have presented the show for more than a quarter of a century by the time he leaves in May 2025.

“I look back and it’s been an amazing experience, and I feel incredibly fortunate,” he said, before confirming he would still watch Match of the Day.

Lineker said he was leaving the show in “really good shape”, describing the viewing figures as “still really competitive on a Saturday night”.

“It’s the flagship BBC Sports programme, hopefully, it always will be.”

Last year, Lineker was briefly suspended from hosting Match of the Day after his tweet about the British government’s asylum policy sparked a row about the corporation’s presenters expressing political views on social media.

“I’ve had a lot of chaos over the last couple of years in many ways,” Lineker said, adding he was on “first-name terms with some of the people that stand outside my front door”.

Lineker will continue with the Match of the Day Top 10 podcast alongside his The Restis Football podcast, which also features the BBC pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.

Lineker has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years and was estimated to have earned £1.35m in the year 2023-24, according to the corporation’s annual report published in July.

The BBC said future plans for Match of the Day would be “announced in due course”.