Kelly Cates

Sports presenter and Match Of The Day host Kelly Cates joins Vernon Kay to choose ten songs that have soundtracked her life, ahead of leading the BBC's coverage of the men's 2026 World Cup.

Kelly was born in 1975 in Glasgow, at a time when her father, the footballer Kenny Dalglish, was playing for Celtic. The family then moved to Southport when Kenny moved to Liverpool. After starting a mathematics degree at Glasgow, she left in 1998 and became one of the first-ever presenters on the brand new Sky Sports News. Since then she's built a career to become one of the most respected sports broadcasters in the UK, now part of the team fronting the iconic Match of the Day. This summer she is one of the presenters leading the TV and radio coverage on the BBC of the men's 2026 football World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada - a tournament that will feature both England and Scotland.

Listen to Tracks Of My Years on BBC Sounds, and watch Vernon's conversations on BBC iPlayer, just search for 'Tracks Of My Years'.

A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 2.