Gary Lineker picks his 11 favourite Premier League players and snubs close friend

Gary Lineker left out Frank Lampard when listing his favourite 11 players from the era. will of highlights show and has marked the occasion by picking his favourite players.

The former England striker is stepping down as the programme’s presenter in the wake of . for a post he had shared on about Zionism which featured a picture of a rat.

The 64-year-old has fronted Match of the Day since 1999 and will be given an emotional send-off on Sunday night, in the role. For many, he is now best known as a presenter, rather than a footballer, and has become synonymous with the Premier League.

Having spent 26 years talking about the competition on the TV, Lineker has a depth of knowledge about the Premier League. But whittling down his favourite players to just 11 was clearly a difficult task.

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As a former player and an ardent supporter, there were some obvious choices, with Jamie Vardy coming at the top of the list on . "My Leicester bias obviously, but it's for what he's done at Leicester, coming to the club when he was in his mid-20s, [costing] a million quid,” he said. “He's just left, he's just finished for Leicester and he's been incredible. Goalscoring machine.”

also got the nod, having starred in Leicester’s famous 2016 title win. “More than anything else, it was [because of] his first touch, he brought it down like it was always a feather landing on his foot,” Lineker said.

“I've never known anyone with such a touch, he's right up there with the likes of – not his overall ability, but in terms of his first touch – any of the players that you can think of."

Lineker said his criteria was based on "players that have given me a lot of pleasure, a lot of joy, over the period of time that I've presented the Premier League”. That meant shout-outs for greats like , , Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry and current players like , Kevin De Bruyne and , but surprisingly not Lampard.

“ to start with – a goalscoring midfield player who was incredible,” he said. "It was difficult leaving out people like Frank because I know him well. Trent [Alexander-Arnold] was really hard, and [David] Beckham as well – he is another one, a little bit like De Bruyne, that I would have loved to have played with.”

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Eden Hazard and both made the cut, having lit the league up for and Tottenham respectively. But the likes of Luis Suarez, Paul Scholes, , Patrick Vieira, N’Golo Kante, , Virgil van Dijk, David Silva and were just honourable mentions.

Full list of Gary Lineker’s favourite 11 Premier League players: Jamie Vardy, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Eden Hazard, Riyad Mahrez, Kevin De Bruyne, Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Gareth Bale, Mohamed Salah and Harry Kane.

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