logo
logo
Tyldesley is leaving ITV after 28 years with the broadcaster.

9 times Clive Tyldesley was a national treasure: Barcelona, Istanbul, 2018 World Cup…

Michael Lee •

Clive Tyldesley is set to leave ITV after 28 years in the commentary box, with Germany’s last 16 match against Denmark at Euro 2024 acting as his terrestrial swansong for millions of heartbroken supporters.

Tyldesley is one of football’s most iconic voices and has worked for the broadcaster since 1996. From 1998 to 2015, Tyldesley commentated on every single Champions League final, and he was their lead commentator at the World Cup from 2002 to 2018 and Euros from 2000 to 2016.

But he is now leaving his role after ITV confirmed they will not be offering the 69-year-old a new contract. It is thought they will air an tribute to him during his final match.

We’ve collected together nine of the most iconic moments of Tyldesley’s time at ITV that prove the commentator is a national treasure.

1999

“Can Manchester United score? They always score.” And so begins the most iconic four minutes in Tyldesley’s – and of course United’s – history.

Trailing Bayern Munich 1-0 going into injury time, United earned a corner which even Peter Schmeichel comes up for.

The goalkeeper gets near David Beckham’s cross, but substitute Teddy Sheringham rakes in Ryan Giggs’ scuffed effort to keep their treble dream alive.

“Name. On. The. Trophy,” declares Tyldesley, who explained to manutd.com some 20 years later: “After four or five seconds, for me it was about one thing: ‘Name on the trophy.’

“This is meant to be. That’s when the Champions League final transcended into cinematic melodrama and fate took hold.”

And of course, the match did not head to extra-time, as another corner gave United one final chance in normal time…

“Is this their moment? Beckham… Into Sheringham… AND SOLSKJAER HAS WON IT!”

Solskjaer’s knee-slide follows, so too Schmeichel’s cartwheel, but Tyldesley remains silent for a moment as he lets the pictures do the talking.

“Manchester United have reached the promised land,” he eventually adds. “The treble looms large.”

Rooney

“Gravesen forward. Rooney. Instant control. Fancies his chances. Oh, a brilliant goal! A brilliant goal!”

Tyldesley has a knack for that succinct one-liner moments after the ball has rippled the net. And in October 2002, he belted out five words which have gone down in Premier League folklore: “Remember the name! Wayne Rooney!”

Tyldesley later went on to admit he had a helping hand with this famous line.

“The ‘remember the name’ line actually came from a fan who I had known for a number of years up there,” Tyldesley told Liverpool Echo in 2015.

“He came up to me at the wrong end of a sportsman’s dinner when we’d both had a glass or two and he whispered in my ear, ‘Remember the name: Wayne Rooney’.”

Trippier

Tyldesley narrated England’s matches to ITV viewers for the best part of two decades. That has included a lot of lows, including the Euro 2016 exit to Iceland, but notably the high of their run to the World Cup semi-finals two years later.

The nation really started to believe when Kieran Trippier whacked in that free-kick against Croatia in the semis, with the commentator effectively capturing the historic nature of the moment.

READ NEXT: Ranking all of the BBC & ITV pundits at Euro 2024 from worst to best

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every Champions League final goalscorer since 2000?

Eric Dier

That run in Russia featured a penalty shootout victory over Colombia in the last 16.

Tyldesley can be forgiven for a little bias here. He is speaking for a nation when England are involved, and his puff of breath when Marcus Rashford’s penalty squeezed past David Ospina was one echoed by millions around the country.

With the scores at 3-3, up steps Eric Dier to take the decisive kick and Tyldesley opts for 12 seconds of silence after introducing the importance of the penalty.

He is merely taking it all in, holding his breath along with 23.6 million ITV viewers.

Finally… “YES!” What better word for it? As Dier slotted it past Ospina the relief was palpable, and England’s penalty shootout jinx was ended. “England are World Cup quarter-finalists, and they’ve done it on penalties. The show goes on and England have a part in it.”

Peerless.

Liverpool

For all of Liverpool’s triumphs under Jurgen Klopp, nothing will beat Istanbul. Nothing will ever beat the sheer improbability of Istanbul.

You know the tale; 3-0 down against the world XI of AC Milan in 2005, Rafa Benitez’s Reds stage the most dramatic comeback in the history of the European Cup before winning the final on penalties – and Tyldesley was there.

“If I had the chance to do it all over again, is there anything I would change about the commentary of that night,” he said about his performance in the commentary box that night 15 years later.

“Well, there’s nothing I’d change about that moment (Gerrard goal), although I have no idea why I said ‘here we go’.

“Maybe it was the gathering sense of fate, the way that Liverpool had reached the final that year with a three-goal comeback in the final group game which got them into the knockout phase.

“An underdog victory against Juventus, the ‘ghost goal’ against Chelsea in the semi-final, maybe there was a sense of fate gathering.”

Batistuta

Taken from ITV’s golden era of Champions League coverage, Gabriel Batistuta’s howitzer at Old Trafford for Fiorentina in 2000 encapsulated everything good about Tyldesley, from his genuine awe at the strike to the ability to translate that wonder for the watching audience.

The big Champions League nights

For a generation, Tyldesley was the voice of Champions League nights on ITV as the top Premier League clubs took on the cream of the continent before the competition truly ate itself.

The commentator played his part in making the likes of Deportivo La Coruna, Valencia, Parma and Auxerre into cult teams and this was all available on terrestrial television.

We used to be a country.

Jermaine Beckford

ITV also broadcast FA Cup matches for parts of the last two decades, featuring matches from the first round to the final – meaning Tyldesley could be found anywhere from Histon to Old Trafford.

Here is narrating the goal that saw third-tier Leeds United win at the home of their old enemy in January 2010.

Georgia

Unlike the backlash that the likes of John Motson and Martin Tyler faced in the autumn of their broadcasting careers, Tyldesley is still adored by supporters and has been in top form at Euro 2024.

Overseeing Georgia’s shock win over Portugal alongside Ally McCoist, the 69-year-old effortlessly captured the enormity of the occasion and the childlike wonder of seeing the tournament debutants beat Cristiano Ronaldo and co.

Tyldesley’s voice remains his greatest gift, preserving nearly 30 years of nostalgia. Generations have grown up subconsciously associating that squealing rasp with the defining moments of their footballing educations.

He will be sorely missed.

Lists And Rankings