Andrés Cantor Sets Third Messi World Cup Final for Telemundo
Andrés Cantor is set to call his third messi world cup final for Telemundo on July 19 in East Rutherford, N.J. The 63-year-old lead Spanish play-by-play voice is also preparing for his 12th consecutive FIFA World Cup assignment, a run that has carried his signature goal call across more than 25 years on the network.
Cantor And Telemundo In East Rutherford
Cantor has become the network’s most recognizable soccer voice by turning goals into a calling card. His elongated “Gooooooooaaaal” and “Gooooaal!” are tied to a career that took off in the 1990s during his first television stint with Univision and later followed him into Telemundo’s top international matches.
The July 19 final adds another high-profile assignment to a list that already includes his calls on Argentina’s championship runs in 1978 and 1986, along with the 2022 final in Lusail, Qatar, when Lionel Messi led Argentina past France. For a broadcaster who has spent decades at the center of Spanish-language soccer coverage in the U.S., another final keeps him in the same lane he has occupied for most of his career.
Maradona, Messi, And The Voice
Cantor has tied some of his most vivid career memories to Argentina’s biggest World Cup moments. He said he “was witness to the greatest goal ever scored” when Diego Maradona struck against England in 1986, and he has also pointed to Argentina’s 1978 title in Buenos Aires and its 1986 victory in Mexico City as defining moments that fueled his broadcasts.
His relationship with the goal call has only deepened over time. Cantor said, “I don’t own it,” but added, “You can say that I make it mine. But obviously it’s one word that is synonymous with my career and I’m very grateful that everyone enjoys not only the elongated goal call but also the passion that I put within the 90 minutes of each broadcast.” He also said, “I never said I invented anything. I just popularized it in the U.S.”
Fulham, Germany, And The Next Stage
The final comes after a recent stretch that showed how little his approach has changed. Cantor called a pre-World Cup exhibition match between the U.S. men’s national team and Germany on Saturday, and Antonee Robinson’s volley prompted his signature call for 23 seconds before he did it again for another 15.
He had already described the rhythm that still drives him. “The day I’m not happy waking up knowing that I have to call a soccer game – wherever it happens to be or whatever league it happens to be – that will make me think,” he said in late April. Days after calling a sunrise match between Fulham and Aston Villa, he added, “The minute I hop in the car on my way to call the game, I am the happiest man alive,” and, “And that passion hopefully transcends onto the screen because soccer is my life and I have the same passion now that I had since Day One.”
That approach is what carries him into July 19. Cantor’s next World Cup final places him back on the biggest stage in Spanish-language soccer broadcasting, with East Rutherford as the setting and a familiar voice once again leading the way.
