Inside MOTD’s ‘new signing’ Kelly Cates’ rise to top, from famous babysitter to brutal reason her footie career ended
Share:
LISTENING intently to her dad and his mates’ football chat as a youngster, Kelly Cates could not have had a better preparation to host Match Of The Day. For her father is Sir Kenny Dalglish — pride of Celtic and Liverpool’s Kop, with a record 102 Scottish caps, three European Cups and a clutch of league titles to his name as both a player and a manager.
![[Kelly Cates could not have had a better preparation to host Match Of The Day]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/kelly-cates-attends-legends-football-957632172_c5bc9d.jpg?strip=all&w=640)
And those mates often included fellow medal-laden Reds Graeme Souness and Alan Hansen, both now top pundits themselves. Kelly’s one-time babysitter Graeme once said: “She is fantastic at this job because she has been in a football house all her life, listened to the daft chat on football from all of us since she was tiny.
![[Sharing a light-hearted moment pitchside with her dad, Reds legend Kenny Dalglish]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/sir-kenny-dalglish-premier-league-957899774.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
“I’d be in the living room, Alan Hansen would be in there, opinions going out all over. “She had a great insight into how this football world works.”. While Kelly has absorbed the game from some of its greatest names, it’s her own deft skills behind the mic that have seen her rise to the very top in sports broadcasting.
![[Kelly aged four at Anfield in 1980 with mum, dad, brother Paul and the League Championship trophy]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ee727934-dd94-4a33-837e-d4a152800de4.jpg?strip=all&w=804)
Now, alongside friends Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman, the 49-year-old is reported to be about to take over the Match Of The Day presenter’s chair from Gary Lineker. In a considerable coup for the BBC, reports suggest the corporation has managed to prise Kelly away from Sky Sports to present its flagship football programme.
![[Kelly in 1979 with dad Kenny’s Liverpool team-mate Graeme Souness, who used to babysit her]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/liverpool-fc-footballer-graeme-souness-957926995.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
