On the football pitch, he was famed for his ability to sniff out the next big opportunity long before any of his rivals.
So, at a time when his paymasters at a certain crisp company are running out of stock for him to flog, it was no surprise to see Gary Lineker launching a new venture on ITV last Sunday.
Gary’s move into the shiny floor gameshow market with Sitting On A Fortune suggests that he fancies himself as the next Bradley Walsh.
He certainly appears to share Bradley’s cheeky sense of humour.
Why else would he agree to host a show that sounds like it was named in honour of his controversial BBC salary?
Whether it will prove a successful career move, remains to be seen.
However, having saddled him with the scheduling equivalent of a hospital pass, you had to wonder whether ITV had much faith.
Then again, launching up against Sunday night’s biggest crowd-puller over on BBC1 might have done Gary a favour.
No one was expecting him to trouble the Strictly results show in the ratings. Plus, if his debut turned out to be a shocker at least very few people would have witnessed it.
The good news is it wasn’t a shocker.
Six contestants sat in a line of chairs, looking like they were about to launch into the Oops Upside Your Head wedding dance or go for a ghost train ride.
Then they just answered questions instead, while Lineker shuffled around trying to interest them in awkward small talk, like a man at a work Christmas party who’d rather be at home watching Gary Neville’s Soccer Box.
It may not have had the tension and playalongability of, say, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? but – to everyone’s relief – it was no Gordon Ramsay’s Bank Balance either.
As you may have noticed, having former sports stars as gameshow hosts seems to be the hot thing in TV land, which must have come as a surprise to the former sports star and (now) former gameshow host Sue Barker.
As well as Gary’s effort, we have Ian Wright’s Moneyball and Alex Scott’s The Tournament.
Where it will all end is anyone’s guess, but if Ant & Dec are suddenly unable to host I’m A Celebrity later this month don’t be surprised to see Roy Keane and Micah Richards stepping in.
Actually, I would totally watch that.
Come on, Ant & Dec, how about it? Think of all the Newcastle matches you could go to instead.
