TNT Sports presenter is known as as contender to host Match of the Day to interchange Gary Lineker

TNT Sports presenter Reshmin Chowdhury has quietly emerged as a contender to succeed Gary Lineker as Match of the Day host. 

Lineker, 63, 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.

The former England striker said hosting Match Of The Day for 25 years was ‘an absolute joy and privilege’, but that it is ‘the right time’ for him to exit and ‘someone else to take the helm’ as the BBC looks to make changes to the programme.

As rumours swirl over who will takeover Lineker, Chowdhury, 46, has emerged as a surprise contender. 

The presenter has admirers within the BBC and has commentated on major tournaments for the broadcaster. 

Sources have told the Mail that Alex Kay-Jelski, the BBC’s director of sport who will make the call, attempted to bring Chowdhury to The Athletic when he was previously editor. 

On that occasion he was unsuccessful, but the pull of presenting one of the BBC’s most coveted shows could tempt Chowdhury away from TNT. 

Chowdhury worked as a reporter for BBC London and BBC News.

She then joined BBC Sport in 2010 and went on to present Match of the Day 2 as a stand-in.

The presenter has also hosted the Women’s Super League and was a live match reporter during the 2018 World Cup.

She currently fronts TNT Sports’ coverage of the Europa League and Conference League.

Showing her versatility, Chowdhury has also presented darts, tennis, the Olympics, the Paralympics, the Champions League and the FA Cup.

It comes after it emerged that MOTD2 frontman Mark Chapman is the favourite to replace Lineker.

But The Sun revealed last week that BBC bosses wanted him to share the job with Kelly Somers – which he is not keen on doing.

Gabby Logan and Alex Scott are also understood to be in contention, while Roman Kemp could be involved as the BBC takes the show in a new direction.

Reflecting on his time at Match of the Day last week, Lineker said on his podcast, The Rest is Football:  ‘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.

‘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.’

He 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.’

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 joked, saying he was on ‘first-name terms with some of the people that stand outside my front door’.

He added that he was surprised by ‘the amount of love’ he has received since news of his departure broke, which he described as ‘a bit bonkers’.

‘I didn’t think it would be quite the big deal that it was – it’s just a guy that has done a TV show for a long time, it’s nothing more than,’ he said.

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

He will continue with the MOTD Top Ten podcast alongside his The Rest Is Football podcast, which also features BBC pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.