15 Greatest Jeff Stelling Moments On Soccer Saturday (Ranked) | OneFootball

After nearly three decades as the host and face of Sky Sports' flagship Saturday show, Jeff Stelling has announced that he is going to be leaving his football reporting post at the end of the season.

Down the years, we've seen plenty of absolutely amazing moments from the main man on Gilette Soccer Saturday and his incredible cast of co-hosts, and as we hurtle towards a new era, here are some of the best bits that we've seen from Stelling.

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15 Brad Walker's Hartlepool Winner

The love affair between Stelling and his hometown club, Hartlepool United, of which he is now the President, is a thread that has run through much of his time on Sky Sports screens.

There have been ups and downs, which we'll get to, but one of his most iconic moments came when Hartlepool scored in the middle of one of Stelling's trademark rapid-fire score updates from around the grounds, where he interrupted himself to scream the name of goalscorer Brad Walker.

It turned out to be the winner, although not without its own drama, where a prolonged injury time meant that Stelling end up yelling "Blow your whistle, man in black. It's dark outside!"

14 In Defence of Middlesbrough

Following a preview of a Middlesbrough game at the Riverside, Stelling decided he wasn't going to be able to let a pet peeve lie, and took aim at a recent poll that had ranked Middlesbrough as the worst place to live in the country.

It started relatively calm but gathered speed, and the spitfire facts that Stelling reeled off in defence of a proud city close to his heart was captivating television.

It also impressed his co-hosts enough to have them off their seats egging him on, and the application and delivery of his tirade here is an example of a broadcaster in his prime, shelling out nuggets of knowledge to an enthralled audience.

13 The Pink Wig

Stelling received a bit of backlash in 2020 when he made fun of then-Nottingham Forest forward Lyle Taylor for having pink hair - unaware that it was something the forward had done for several seasons in October to raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer.

Upon learning of the reason, Stelling donned a pink wig and apologised to Taylor live on air, before promising to wear it every time Taylor scored for the rest of the month - both making amends, and raising further awareness.

12 The Kammy Files: Not Responding

The first of Chris Kamara's appearances in this list revolves around a technical difficulty, but Stelling's wherewithal to direct the producers back to Kammy three separate times when his headset wasn't working, allowing the program to show a nonplussed Kamara happily watching the game, was a work of broadcast genius.

Stelling's slightly changed introductions, as the second half went on, and the entire comic facade of this segment was a show of a man who had mastered his craft and knew his audience to perfection.

11 The Palace Pigeon

Selhurst Park played host to a chaotic picture on one season opener, where Stelling watching on told viewers that they appeared to be "parading a giant pigeon" to fans around the stadium, before realising that it was an Eagle - famously Crystal Palace's mascot.

Later pictures showed the bird, draped in red and blue, with Stelling repeating that it was "an easy mistake to make" in that the bird had two wings and a beak, before seamlessly transitioning out of his embarrassment to put the onus back on Phil Thompson's nose.

10 Show Us the Conference

Gentle ribbing from the production team was always common, so when Stelling refused to talk about the bottom half of the League Two table that showed Hartlepool rock bottom of the Football League, instead advising viewers that "they could read it themselves", the tech gang were always going to make a play.

When they refused to move the screen on, further highlighting Pool's plight, Stelling gradually lost his cool, shouting "Show us the Conference" again and again, to the delight of the surrounding panel.

9 The Call from Sky Broadband

There were a few instances of phones going off in the studio - and famously Paul Merson once prank-called Stelling live on air because he knew he couldn't turn a new phone off. The best of these moments though was Stelling's infamous call from Sky Broadband.

Initially passing it off as a call from his wife, Stelling then revealed to rapturous laughter that it was the very employer he was currently live on who were giving him a call, before staring down the camera to yell "You need to be more professional!"

8 The Kammy Files: Getting Corrected

Just after West Ham's move to the London Stadium and their emotional goodbye to Upton Park, Stelling threw the coverage to Chris Kamara live at the new stadium, although he referred to it by the old name still.

Quick as a flash Kammy picked him up on it, telling Jeff to "get it right!" - a moment that Stelling then jokingly referred to as 'the low point in [his] career," before flipping Kamara's signature phrase on him, finishing with an "Unbelievable, Kammy."

7 VAR Rant

VAR has divided opinion in the football world, with both opponents and proponents of the technology vehemently holding their ground. Early on in its implementation, when Leicester were not given a penalty against Arsenal, Stelling exploded into a thunderous 'SCRAP VAR' tirade, backed up by Tony Cottee.

What made this brilliant though, was Stelling's follow-up after the camera cut back to him - where he invited Mike Riley, Chief of PGMOL at the time, to come onto the show and enlighten both the panel and his audience as to what the vision around the technology was.

It was a perfect balance of heat-of-the-moment reaction and a more considered viewpoint - a balance that Stelling struck so often down his years on Soccer Saturday.

6 Sandwichgate

On such a behemoth of a show, the food eaten in between slots and bounces to pundits was always going to show itself at some point. There were plenty of flashpoints - Jeff throwing to Iain Dowie as he was halfway through a chocolate bar springs to mind - but the best of the lot came from the host himself.

Disappointed with a sandwich he'd purchased from the Sky canteen, Stelling dissected it live on air - criticising the bacon for being too fatty, the lettuce for being too old, and anything else he could think of, before throwing it into the bin.

5 Alan Pardew's Headbutt

Paul Merson's interest had been piqued by an off-camera incident between Alan Pardew, then manager of Newcastle United, and David Meyler of Hull City, but it was Stelling's reaction when the headbutt from Pardew was finally shown that turned this moment from shocking to iconic.

"The book is going to be thrown...at you!" he declared about the Newcastle manager, with the studio in horror. He was right - Pardew was handed a seven-game ban and a £60,000 fine for his actions.

4 Hartlepool Relegation Day

From ecstasy to despair, Stelling's reactions throughout a dramatic final day when his beloved hometown club pitched from survival to relegation were an ode to the emotional rollercoaster that is football.

It's also a testament to his love for Hartlepool United that he was able to get everybody else so bought into the last day of the season, and the celebrations the in studio for Devante Rodney's second goal of the day were a joy to behold.

Ultimately though, it wasn't to be enough and Newport County's late winner sent Hartlepool out of the football league - but that's the beauty and the pain of the game we love, and it was a day that showed that in a whirlwind of emotions.

3 A Bit of a Sing Song

Giving fair warning to music lovers everywhere, Stelling entertained the nation by embarking on a bit of a personal musical odyssey before throwing to a pre-match segment about Gerard Deulofeu, who was at Everton at the time.

He reeled off a chart from November 1974, starting with a David Essex reference, before giving brief renditions of Barry White's 'You're the First, the Last, My Everything' and Bachman Turner-Overdrive's 'You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet' to the amusement of the panel around him.

But there was a point to the interlude because Stelling pivoted to Number 11 in that chart which was Pilot's 'Magic' - the very same song Everton fans had adapted for Deulofeu - capping off one of the great segues in Soccer Saturday history.

2 The Kammy Files: Red Card

Perhaps the most iconic piece of broadcasting that's come out of Soccer Saturday down the years, this exchange between Jeff and Kammy has become the stuff of football folklore.

The pauses, the incredulous looks, the perfectly toned corrections from Stelling - It couldn't have been higher-calibre comedy gold if it had been scripted, so sit back and enjoy the rapport between two of football's most beloved characters.

1 Specsavers

The camaraderie between co-hosts is one thing, but sometimes the barbs got a little bit edgy. This was not one of those times. After Stelling told Charlie Nicholas that he needed to go to Specsavers for seeing an offside call incorrectly, Nicholas replied with a bumbling riposte that has become an online phenomenon.

One of those moments where at 100 miles an hour the words just don't come out right, the best part of the whole exchange might well have been Stelling's reply, where instead of firing back he calmly defused the situation and brought the joke back upon himself - it was a touch f class, and a reminder of both what a brilliant broadcaster and a true gentleman our departing host is. Thanks for the memories, Jeff.