“Back by no popular demand”: Gary Lineker returns to Twitter after one week of self-imposed ban
Gary Lineker has made a quiet return to Twitter, just one week after his self-imposed ban from the social networking site.
At the time, the Match of the Day presenter said he was leaving “for personal reasons.” He later elaborated stating, "it tends to take over and I thought I would try life without it. There is absolutely nothing sinister about the decision at all".
Announcing his return, Lineker tweeted on Saturday 26 January: "Back by no popular demand whatsoever. Glad it never caused any fuss my taking a break ; )".
Lineker lost his 1 million-plus followers when he quit the site, however by Saturday evening he had gained 200,000.
In a recent Drum feature, ‘What lessons should brands and celebrities learn after Gary Lineker’s Twitter departure?’, Dirk Singer from Rabbit Agency was somewhat cynical that Lineker’s Twitter-hiatus would be permanent.
He said: “There are plenty of other high profile celebrities - for example Jamie Oliver (3 million followers) and Alan Carr (3.2 million) - to give two examples, who manage to run active Twitter accounts without it becoming too time consuming… My bet is that he [Gary Lineker] will be back, perhaps the next time he has a book or video to promote.”