“He’s officially the top dog, isn’t he?” former Manchester City defender Micah Richards asked Alan Shearer on a recent podcast episode.
“Well, he’s a top dog in 2025—absolutely, yeah,” Shearer replied coyly, before he, Richards, and host Gary Lineker burst into laughter.
The trio were playfully debating Erling Haaland’s record-breaking 100th Premier League goal, a moment of lighthearted banter typical of their hit podcast, The Rest Is Football. With its steady stream of episodes, the show has become a dominant force in sports media.
Now, it is set for a much bigger stage. Goalhanger Podcasts, the production company Lineker co-founded, has announced a landmark deal with Netflix to transform The Rest Is Football into a daily TV show during next summer’s men’s World Cup in North America. The move represents a major expansion not just for Goalhanger—the powerhouse behind popular series like The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is History—but for Lineker himself.
The question now is whether this new venture is truly needed, and if the former England striker can translate his podcast success to the screen. For a broadcaster already ubiquitous in British football coverage, the leap into daily World Cup television is both a logical brand extension and a significant gamble—one that will test whether podcast chemistry can captivate a global streaming audience.
By James Kisoo
