Gary W. Lineker was a football striker. In European football, or American soccer, the team sets up the striker, who has the power and maneuverability to actually “strike” the ball into scoring position. Lineker played for several top teams in Britain and Europe. After retiring, Lineker became the host of Match of the Day (commonly referred to as MOTD). He receives £1.35 million (or 1.65 million USD) from the BBC for his expertise.

What is Match of the Day ?

The football show is a highlights program. It is broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, but only during the Premier League season. It is one of the BBC’s longest-running shows (it started on August 22, 1964) and is quite popular.

Lineker got into the news when accused of being “out of order” on the current British asylum program.

 Lineker replied: “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people , and in language not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?” Lineker is a strong liberal, as shown by his Jupiter in the ninth house in Capricorn being very open to foreigners and accepting. He often voices his ideology whenever a microphone is near.

Lineker 1 – BBC 0?

Seems that the BBC rules are so vague that Lineker is not “out of order” and will return to his plush job.The UK Telegraph notes other telly presenters who have crossed the line. They, though, have not been as egregious as Gary who has compared the current government to Hitler’s Nazi regime because of their decision to deport uncarded immigrants. This has caused British politicos to question the “Aunty tax.” It has also caused comparison between the BBC and the PBS in the US. a service no longer needed with all the streaming services available.

Striking the Chart

Gary Winston Lineker was born on November 30th, 1960 in Leicester City, Leicester (pronounced Lester BTW), England. That was incidentally Winston Churchill’s birthday and explains his middle name. He has a younger brother, Wayne, who is a nightclub mogul. When they were younger, they were quite close but are now estranged. His chart suggests sibling rivalry is the cause (Dark Moon Lilith 07 Cancer 06 in the third, opposite Jupiter (wealth and position) 06 Capricorn 49).

Lineker has been married twice. His first marriage was to Michelle Cockayne from in 1986 to May 2006. They have four boys George, 33; Harry, 31; Tobias, 28; and Angus, 27.

Love & Marriage

His chart (Mars in Cancer in the fourth house, opposite Venus in Capricorn in the tenth) agrees with Michelle who played off the field with as much vigor as he did on. His second marriage was to the Welsh Danielle Bux, eighteen years his junior.

She claims he refused to have further children, so she divorced him and married entertainment lawyer,Nate Greenwald. They live on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, and have a daughter, Romy Wren who was born in 2017. The reason Danielle gives for their breakup strikes me as odd as she had another child prior to her marriage with Gary¹, so it was not like she had none. The Daily Mail makes lots of comments about Greenwald missing from her Instagram account; she has had only one.

I think that while it is true Gary did not want further children, that was not her real reason. In the end, I think she agreed with Michelle that he could not keep his pants zipped, and they came to an amicable agreement to save face. Their synastric chart shows lots of agreement and a strong physical attraction, as well as her attraction to his wealth and standing. It also highlights his Mars in her fourth house is conjunct her Moon opposite his Venus.²

Public Outrage

His ninth house (with its ruler Jupiter there but in Capricorn) supports his comments of “being too old” to start another family and not really wanting to be tied down anyhow. Yet they reunited on his 62nd birthday.

Earthy Goals

Gary has a Grand Trine in Fire. Grand trines occur when three planets of the same element are each ninety degrees, the definition of a trine. His grand trine starts with Venus at the top of the chart in Capricorn in the tenth house, , then goes to Pluto in Virgo, which is intercepted, and ends up in the first house with the Moon in Taurus.

He also has no conjunction making him rather impersonal with people. He is not a touchy-feely warm being. Both those things, the grand trine and the lack of conjunctions, make him a Humanist Splash, a planetary pattern that is in keeping with the rest of his chart. As his in earthy planets, this also shows he has a bias toward himself and his abilities. Lineker is neither religious nor spiritual; most Splashes are not but are Sir Peter Ustinov, who put emphasis on what they do for their fellow being because they do not believe there is a god who would. While Lineker may portray some for others with his Mercury conjunct Neptune in the seventh house of other relationships, it is geared towards favorable publicity and for public consumption.

As his chart heavily leans on the right side of the globe, he is an opportunistic ³Gary takes advantage of opportunities as they arise. That makes sense, as he came from a rather middle-class family in Leicester. His father, like former PM Margaret Thatcher’s was a greengrocer, and how well he did is uncertain if one views Lineker’s Arabian parts and that his brother Wayne is also wealthy. It must have come from somewhere.

Gary’s Black Moon in the third house suggests that extra education was not necessarily forthcoming. Maybe the elder Lineker made his money later after his sons were grown, and so this lack of personal coaching forced Gary to focus on practice, mobilize his talents, and sharpen his reflexes to make up for the difference. (See US footballer Sammy Baugh with the same Lilith setup).

His ascendant is 01 Taurus 38, which gets the keyword “Strategy.,” and it is conjunct his Moon. That works well both in his soccer & now as the MOTD presenter. He shrewdly uses his instinct to know just what to pounce upon and use for his benefit.

Opposite Neptune in Scorpio in the seventh, suggests he tends in inflate his own importance particularly in his career, and since it is trine, the twelfth house; alas this does not always work out in his favour though with the BBC it has. The Sun sextile to his Part of Fortune at 01 Libra 56 in the sixth house and intercepted gives us some clue to his ability to mimic others’ opinions for his advantage as well.

The Marc E. Jones Lines

• Line of Vitality zip.
• Line of Efficiency in opposition. Jones writes this illustrates the person’s “hyperacute sensitivity to the potentials” at hand.
• Line of Motivation conjunct. Jones says this person uses their physical abilities for their success, making him more concerned with the temporal side of life than spiritual. Again, quite fitting with his planetary pattern..
• Line of Social Significance. This lack is not of great importance. Jones recommends heeding the relationship to Pluto where we get a sextile. Jones suggests this person aims to be a spokesperson for his beliefs to obscure his personal behaviour; see JFK and his brother, the senator from Massachusetts, Ted, for a similar lack.

Updates.

Gary left MOTD the end of the 2024-25 season. No reason was announced and is probably “coincidental” to his 2023 X remarks.

Footnotes

1. That is if the Daily Mail is right But even if it isn’t look at Mars in Cancer conjunct her Part of Fortune/Mercury and tell me she didn’t know that ahead of time . ↩︎
2. See the Bux Lineker chart below. The cardinal houses are highlighted. Pink is for Danielle and green for Gary. ↩︎
3. Marc Jones in the quintessential “How to Learn” called this table d’hôte or the house menu. Table d’hote translates as “table of the host.” This is when the chef or restaurant, offers a specific meal. You can take it or leave it, but you can’t really change it because this is what they made for you.. ↩︎