Gary Lineker 'turns down £1m offer' from Harry's book publisher to pen memoir (2025)

Gary Lineker was reportedly offered a staggering £1million to write his autobiography but negotiations are still on the table with Prince Harry's book publisher

Match of The Day host Gary Lineker has reportedly been offered £1million to pen his memoir by the same publishing team behind Prince Harry's autobiography, Spare. But it looks as though the former England footballer is not prepared to divulge details of his professional and personal life for that sum of money.

And you can perhaps understand why Gary, 64, is holding out for more as he has always remained tight-lipped over his marriages, children and career.

It was also reported that Prince Harry was given a £15million advance for his book by Penguin Random House, which caused major ripples within the Royal family.

A source told The Mail on Sunday: "Gary's team were pretty sniffy about the opening offer, even though it's a million pounds. There was a view that it was derisory."

They added: "Everyone knows what a stir Prince Harry's book made, so they were interested. Gary is outspoken when he wants to be so it could be the perfect combination."'

"It is the same commissioning editor who commissioned the Duke of Sussex who is now after Gary but Gary hasn't yet signed the deal. He has never done an autobiography before so he thought he'd be able to command even more cash, but at the moment the negotiations are ongoing," they continued.

The source concluded: "Maybe it would be a case of not saying so much about his private life but more about football. "

They added: "Obviously the publishers know the real value is getting Gary to talk about his marriages and his personal life for the first time but he seems to think just his football insights are worth the cash." A representative for Gary has been contacted by The Mirror.

Next month, Gary is set to hang up his boots when it comes to presenting Match of the Day when the Premiere League season ends.

Earlier this month, Gary launched an unprovoked attack on fellow football legend Gary Neville over their rival podcasts. Gary hosts his own podcast The Rest Is Football and the ongoing rivalry between the two has been gathering pace for months.

Gary told Micah Richard and Alan Shearer, while on his show: "They're trying to pretend that they've got the best football podcast?' he said to Richards and Alan Shearer on the latest episode of the podcast."

He added: "They're languishing miles behind - and that's OK, we like people to have a bit of competition in there. You can't be the best podcast when you stand there talking over each other all the time."

Gary then continued: "They're a YouTube show, we know that, because you can't have five people round a thing doing a podcast, it's just too many, it doesn't work... not that I know anything about podcasts."

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