Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Leeds United
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Sunderland
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
News
Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer’s ludicrous BBC salaries revealed which absolutely dwarf their wages as footballers
The BBC have now released their list of salaries for 2024/25 – including the figures paid to Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer.
Both earned significant amounts of money during their playing days in football, as you would expect given their impressive careers.
Alan Shearer amassed 63 caps for England and 441 Premier League appearances – with the Newcastle legend also cementing himself as the top scorer in the competition with 260 goals.
In regards to Gary Lineker, the man from Leicester won 80 caps for England, also scoring 238 goals in 468 games.
However, the pair have seen their salaries skyrocket since working in television.
BBC reveal wages of Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker
The have now disclosed that Lineker, who stood down in May, was the highest earner at the corporation in 2024/25 – making £1.35m in wages for his work presenting Match of the Day and several FA Cup games.
Shearer – who feels Chelsea will sell Nicolas Jackson – sits closely behind in third place. Former Radio 2 breakfast host Zoe Ball separates the pair on £515,000.
The Newcastle icon made £440,000 for the year due to his work as a pundit on Match of the Day.
Radio 1 presenter Greg James and the Today programme’s Nick Robinson sit fourth and fifth on the list respectively.
- Gary Lineker – £1.35m
- Zoe Ball – £515,000
- Alan Shearer – £440,000
- Greg James – £425,000
- Nick Robinson – £410,000
- Fiona Bruce – £410,000
- Stephen Nolan – £405,000
- Laura Kuenssberg – £395,000
- Vernon Kay – £390,000
- Justin Webb – £365,000
How Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer wages compare to their salaries as footballers
Had the duo been playing in the modern era, they most likely would have received far more than they got from the BBC across 2024/25.
For example, even a relatively unspectacular player – such as Manchester United No.9 Rasmus Hojlund, with all due respect – can boast an annual salary of £4.4m, so legends like Shearer and Lineker would have presumably made far more.
However, having played in a time before serious amounts of money infiltrated the game, they are now much better off financially working in television.
Salary figures for that era are not even available online, but a comparison to their BBC wages can be made thanks to revealing comments from the duo when speaking on podcast.
Shearer admitted: “I had been, as a youth player, on £27.50 per week for a couple of years. When I signed my pro contract a few days later I had suddenly gone from £27-per-week to £225-a-week and I got a £6,000 signing on fee.”
Even at the height of his Newcastle career, the man born in Gosforth only earned £34,000-a-week, contextually speaking.
Lineker – who thinks Arsenal will sign Eberechi Eze – added: “My first paycheque, and this is how things have changed a little bit, was £16 in an envelope with a separate envelope with a fiver in it for my mum… I signed my first professional contract and I earned £100 a week and that was in 1978.
“I had that contract for about three years and then signed a new one when I thought I was really rich when I was put up to £400 a week and that’s what I was earning when I left Leicester at 24.”
As you can see, Shearer and Lineker are far better off financially when it comes to speaking about football, as opposed to playing the sport.