l has signed former England captain Alan Shearer as its first-ever football ambassador on a season-long deal.

The Newcastle United legend turned Match of the Day pundit will write a weekly deal for Coral on the big issues affecting the game, and he will also turn up at Coral events and talk to its customers on social media.

Shearer, Newcastle’s all-time leading scorer and a Premier League winner with Blackburn Rovers, said: “I’m looking forward to working with Coral and giving their football customers my thoughts and opinions on all aspects of what should be a fascinating and thrilling football season. It’s such a great sport and there’s never any shortage of controversy or major talking points so it’s going to be fun airing my views on a week by week basis through this blog.”

Simon Clare, PR director at Coral, added: “Alan Shearer is one of the finest footballers of his generation and this is quite simply the biggest football signing in Coral’s history.

“The vast majority of Coral customers are football fans so it made perfect sense to go out and get one of the biggest and most respected names in the sport to work with us. Alan had a very committed, uncompromising style on the pitch and he won’t be pulling and punches in his weekly blog either so it should be a not-to-be-missed read.”