Euro 2024 viewers were left shocked by a “harsh” Gary Lineker comment that left Frank Lampard “fuming”.
The day before England’s group stage match against Denmark, Lineker, who is leading the BBC’s coverage of the sporting tournament, was hosting the coverage for Germany vs Hungary on Wednesday (19 June) live from Berlin.
Lineker is hosting the broadcasts in an open-air studio positioned in front of the Brandenbrug Gates. On the opposite side to the one seen from the studio, a big screen is up for Berlin residents to watch each match.
Crowds of German sports fans had gathered to watch their country’s victory against Hungary, and Lineker, despite being close to the crowd’s celebrations of two goals for Germany, was unable to see the action due to this screen.
Addressing this, Lineker said: “I wish they’d take that screen down ’cause then we’d see all the punters, but if they took the screen down, they wouldn’t be able to watch the game, would they?”
Here, Lampard said: “They’d see the back of our heads. No one would turn up to that,” to which Lineker responded: “No one wants to see the back of your head these days, do they, Frank? That’s for sure.”
Viewers took this to be a balding joke aimed at the former football pro, who also appeared rather taken aback by the comment. Having been smiling moments before, he suddenly turned very serious and appeared to squirm in his chair as Lineker, after an awkward silence, moved the conversation along.
A video has since gone viral on X/Twitter, with one user writing: “Gary Lineker has just absolutely bodied Frank Lampard on live TV Lampard’s face is killing me. The fume.”
Lineker told The Rest is Football podcast that he will apologise to Lampard, admitting that the joke “came out a bit wrong”.
He said: “Obviously Frank’s slightly thinning, I’m slightly thinning, and I actually meant it about everyone. But when it came out, it came out a bit wrong. And you know Frank does that thing where he smiles, and then he suddenly doesn’t smile?”
Many branded the comment ‘savage” and highlighted the moment Lampard realises what Lineker has just said. He didn’t take it well!! Poor bloke!” one viewer wrote.
“He didn’t have to do Frank like that,” another person wrote, with an additional football fan stating: “Gary Lineker has never been booked in his playing career but that defo deserved at least a yellow.”