Football pundit Chris Kamara was left disappointed by a low turnout of former colleagues at his annual Sky Soccer Saturday reunion.
The 67-year-old, who won over fans with his humour during his 24-year spell on the show, shared a photo from the recent catch-up. Every year, he tries to bring the former Soccer Saturday panel team together, while also making an effort to include producers and other people he worked closely with.
Unfortunately for the Middlesbrough legend, the turnout for the reunion dinner was low. Kamara left the show three years ago, but has done his best to keep in touch with the people he worked with every football game-week.
In April 2024, he organised another get-together for the Soccer Saturday crew, which saw Alan McInally, Tony Cottee, Jeff Stelling, Phil Thompson and a Sky Sports producer attend. Recently, the Teesside-born commentator took to social media to share a picture from the 2025 reunion, attended by Shreeves, Charlie Nicholas, Bianca Westwood and the producer.
Absent from the photo were former pundits Thompson, Cottee, McInally, Paul Merson and Matt Le Tissier, all of whom presumably had their reasons for missing out. In his post, Kamara did not hide his disappointment regarding the number who showed up.
Alongside the picture, he said: "Soccer Saturday reunion dinner. Only five turned up. But still a fabulous night. Condo (producer), Champagne Charlie, Bianca and, of course, Unbelievable Jeff Stelling."
His use of a crying face emoji hinted he was feeling a bit glum about the low number. It's been five years since Sky decided to flip the personnel of Soccer Saturday on its head.
Thompson, Nicholas and Le Tissier were dismissed from the programme before the 2020/21 football season commenced, while Stelling, Kamara and Merson remained with the show. Adebayo Akinfenwa, Tim Sherwood, Robbie Fowler and Joleon Lescott joined as their successors at the time.
Kamara exited the show in 2022 following his diagnosis with speech apraxia, but made a comeback to live football TV coverage on Amazon Prime's Premier League broadcast during Boxing Day. There, he was joined by Stelling who left his Sky Sports role after 25 years in 2023, but now mainly works for talkSPORT.
Speaking to the Express, Kamara shared his heartache about leaving Sky due to his condition, which impairs speech and cognitive processes. He said: "After 20 plus years of being the first ever in-vision reporter at a live football match, it was with sadness when I realised that I was no longer able to do what I had always taken for granted - just be me.
"At that time, I could hardly talk, wasn't able to remember the players names and was slurring my words. I knew then that I had to get help."
Looking back on the opportunity Amazon Prime gave to him last Boxing Day, he added: "When my wife told me Amazon had been on the phone, I said, 'I know I am getting under your feet, but I'm not delivering parcels!'
"Seriously, Andrew Hornett [Amazon's senior coordinating producer] was on the phone asking me to work for Amazon Prime, covering the Forest v Spurs match with the unbelievable Jeff Stelling - and I loved it! No anxiety, no slurring, the game was good and Nottingham Forest treated me like a returning hero. So, if that's my last game as a reporter, what a way to go out.”
