Her odds to succeed Gary Lineker as the next Match of the Day host have shortened dramatically, but Kelly Cates seems happy enough with her lot in life right now.
“Do you know, and you never want to say this, but at the moment I’ve got a really lovely mix of everything,” the Sky Sports presenter tells The Independent from her home in London.
“I’ve got TV, live matches, radio, and when it gets towards the end of the season I do live Champions League games too. I could be at an Olympics or a World Cup during the summer so the balance of everything feels really nice. But I’m not tempting fate.”
Cates has earned huge acclaim for her presenting on Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage, including its flagship Super Sunday programme, working alongside pundits such as Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane, Jamie Redknapp and Micah Richards.
She also hosts on BBC Radio 5 Live and recently started her own podcast, Not Just Football, with Hayley McQueen and Christine Lampard.
Cates’ easy-going style has gained her a reputation as one of the UK’s leading sports presenters. She is behind Mark Chapman and Alex Scott in the early running to succeed Lineker on Match of the Day, but ahead of Kelly Sommers and her close friend Gabby Logan at the time of writing.
Speaking last week before news officially broke of Lineker’s exit at the end of the season, the daughter of Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish was diplomatic when asked about her chances.
“Gary is still very much in the job and I know him,” said Cates. “Chappers and Gabby, who are also being mentioned as frontrunners, are really good mates of mine.
“I’m certainly not going to put myself in the frame for a job that still has somebody in it and where the people being linked with it are my friends. And I love doing live football. I’m happy where I am.
“When I cover Liverpool games at Anfield, I get to catch up with my mum and dad, even if it’s just five minutes because they’re always the last ones out of the building. I usually head straight back to London if it’s a Sunday game, but I always pop up and say hello.
“I do some work at Premier League Productions out of Stockley Park on a Monday morning show with Ian Wright. We pick out the big stories of the weekend, so I get to do all kinds of really interesting things and I’m really busy.
“Moreover, I do them all in different places so people don’t get sick of me! I’m not angling or looking to do something different because I’m genuinely happy with what I’m doing.”
Whether or not that will change should Cates’ BBC bosses table a tantalising offer to host the greatest sporting institution in British television history remains to be seen.
Cates grew up in a football-dominated household and has always been around the game.
In her early twenties, she quit her maths degree at university in Glasgow to take up a role at the newly created Sky Sports News channel in 1998 and has never looked back.
The 49-year-old remembers: “Suddenly Sky took on a load of kids, basically, who came straight in and they said, ‘We’ll let you go and make telly’.
“There wasn’t a massive budget but Sky just wanted young, enthusiastic people and they didn’t want to take too much of a risk by putting their best people on it. It was a huge decision to leave university, but I thought, ‘This isn’t an opportunity I’m going to get again’.”
Cates grew up watching Des Lynam presenting Match of the Day and cites him and Logan as her inspirations.
“Des was the gold standard,” says Cates with a huge smile. “He had that sense of being engaged with fans and got every single aspect of it right – I loved that tone. It’s the kind of tone that I like watching and listening to. It kind of makes sense that I would aim for, but not quite reach, that.
“I worked for ESPN years ago and they had a mantra of ‘Take the sport seriously but don’t take yourself seriously’. For me, that’s the best approach to take.”
At 51, the more experienced Logan is someone Cates has long admired.
“I always looked at Gabby’s career progress and watched her journey,” she explained. “It was brilliant to see and, even though she’s not much older than me, it felt like she was always the next step.”
Women such as Cates, Logan and Laura Woods have enjoyed hugely successful broadcasting careers but the industry remains largely male-dominated.
“Obviously you see a lot more women on screen, but I’d like to see that backed up in the same numbers behind the cameras as well,” she says. “Now I’m older, I feel much more protective of younger women coming into the industry.”
How does she enjoy working with Neville and Carragher?
“I don’t know how Gary has time for everything he does – he just can’t stop,” laughs Cates. “He just needs to be on the go all the time, his mind works that quickly. It is great working with him, but sometimes the producer will need to rein him in a little bit, saying, ‘We can’t do all of that and we certainly can’t do it with five minutes’ notice, we might need to put a bit of planning into this.’
“But I’m lucky in that I work with some of the most respected voices in football. If you have any questions you want to ask, these guys are the best people to ask. It’s really nice to work with people when you’re always interested in what they have to say. Sometimes I have an idea of where they’re going to go with an answer, but I always care about what they’re going to say and that’s great.”
Cates’ relationship with them is largely professional, though, with little socialising away from work.
“We wouldn’t phone each up and go for a coffee outside of work,” she admits. “But I get on with them and they’re in that bit between mates and colleagues. I’m not saying I wouldn’t go out for a coffee with them! But everyone is always so busy so it never really works out.”
Cates split from her husband Tom Cates in 2021 but their relationship is amicable, which helps her juggle a hectic work schedule and bringing up their two teenage daughters.
“The girls are with their dad at weekends,” she says. “Although we’re not together, we get on fine and he’s really flexible with the girls, so we manage it mostly between us. The girls are getting a bit older now and they think they don’t need as much; that’s what they tell us but they do!”