Gary Lineker gives his tip for who will win the World Cup!

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Gary Lineker fronting the Beeb's World Cup coverage
(Image credit: BBC / Jon Shard / Jon Enoch / Br)

And who he thinks will be the best player in the tournament...

Gary Lineker, who will anchor the BBC’s coverage of the World Cup, predicts old foes Germany will win the tournament.

The 57-year-old pundit – who’ll kick off the Beeb’s coverage with Portugal v Spain on Friday 15th June, resulting in EastEnders having a later time slot – reckons the experience of the Germans will see them through.

“It’s always risky to bet against the Germans, because they have so much experience in the big games and so much talent at their disposal,” says the former England striker.

Gary famously lost out to West Germany in the 1990 World Cup semifinal and he reckons another old foe, Argentina, will have the tournament’s stand out player in Lionel Messi.

“Messi is the best player of all time for me. This could be his last World Cup tournament, and if he’s on form, Argentina could go all the way.”

Meanwhile, Gary predicts that captain Harry Kane will be England’s stand out player in Russia.

“He’s got a lot of confidence and hopefully he can score the goals to send England through to the next round.”

The first game of the World Cup, Russia v Saudi Arabia, is on ITV on Thursday 14th June, with coverage starting at 3.45pm.

David Hollingsworth
David Hollingsworth
Editor

David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.

Before working for What To Watch, David spent many years working for TV Times magazine, interviewing some of television's most famous stars including Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland, singer Lionel Richie and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough. 

David started out as a writer for TV Times before becoming the title's deputy features editor and then features editor. During his time on TV Times, David also helped run the annual TV Times Awards. David is a huge Death in Paradise fan, although he's still failed to solve a case before the show's detective! He also loves James Bond and controversially thinks that Timothy Dalton was an excellent 007.

Other than watching and writing about telly, David loves playing cricket, going to the cinema, trying to improve his tennis and chasing about after his kids!