GABBY LOGAN has revealed that she nearly quit TV presenting in 2006.
The popular presenter, 51, was confirmed as one of three new Match of the Day hosts earlier this year.
Gabby Logan is one of the BBC’s top presenters[/caption]
Logan, 51, will rotate with Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman on Match of the Day next season[/caption]
Logan’s career is going from strength to strength, as she also presents coverage of the Six Nations for the Beeb as well as Champions League football on Amazon Prime Video.
Things could have been very different for the BBC stalwart, however, as she considered quitting the industry following a scathing comment from her former boss at ITV.
Logan covered the 2006 World Cup for the broadcaster and had been due to present coverage of England games as well as several big knockout matches.
Reliving that summer while appearing on Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time podcast, Logan admitted: “I think I had a rough ride in my early thirties in my career, and I can’t believe that’s nearly 20 years ago.
“At the time, I thought it was going to be the end of my career.”
Logan, who left ITV for the BBC later in 2006, then added: “When I was leaving ITV and given another chance by the BBC… because even in my early 30s, I felt I’d already had this really long career and I’d done loads of great stuff.
“I’d been at Sky to start off with and went to ITV and did loads of brilliant things.
“But I kind of felt I was maybe going to have to shift and do something completely different, because I had a boss that wasn’t really into me and wanted to slightly demote me. He took me off a World Cup in 2006.”
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Logan previously presented for ITV[/caption]
The popular presenter worked on London 2012 with the Beeb[/caption]
Opening up further on what happened, she continued: “My kids were a year old and I was flying off to Germany, leaving my babies behind, going to the World Cup.
“In the middle of the World Cup, he kind of sidelined me, and I came home with my tail between my legs.
“I was due to do so many knockout games and he said, ‘oh, just don’t come back’ basically. Go home and don’t come back because I was due to go home for a few days.
“In between the end of the group stages and the knockout stages, there’s always a couple of days off and I was going to go home because it was only Germany and the kids were a year old.”
The setback even caused Logan to consider her entire future in the industry.
She admitted: “I remember being at home – we were doing up a house at the time, so we were renting a house in Barnes. It was a lovely day, it was gorgeous and the river was looking beautiful and the sky was blue.
I was really contemplating what to do next
Gabby Logan
I just remember walking around the garden thinking ‘oh gosh, I love doing up houses, I’m just going to shift and go into property because that’s what my mum does’.
“I was maybe 33 at the time and I thought maybe my law degree wasn’t out of date and I could upgrade and go to bar school. I was really contemplating what to do next.”
Since joining the BBC, Logan has never looked back.
Having previously covered for Lineker on Match of the Day, she will now present the programme regularly in rotation with Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman.
Logan also presented at last year’s Olympic Games in Paris, having worked on several major football tournaments, the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the London Marathon.
On moving to the BBC, she reflected: “There was a lot of that to deal with, and I think it definitely fortified me.
“Once I got that second chance, as I saw it at the time – somewhere that I’d always hoped I might work because of the BBC having the long history with doing the Olympics and various other things that I really wanted to work on – I felt really grateful, and also that I was going to not let this opportunity go.”
Logan presents coverage of the Champions League on Amazon Prime Video[/caption]
