Four years ago, Andrés Cantor choked up through his call of Argentina’s World Cup triumph.
The teary-eyed moment was an ode to his home country. But he has an adopted one, too.
“In 1994, I coined the phrase for the US national team, ‘La seleccion de todos’, which translates to everyone's national team,” Cantor told Complex. “I got some heat for it, because obviously everyone's national team is your own, but I think all immigrants owe a great deal of gratitude to this country. Because otherwise we wouldn't be living here.”
Cantor, known to soccer fans for his trademark “Gooooool” call, was born in Buenos Aires and moved to the US in 1979. Fellow broadcasting veteran and Chilean native Luis Omar Tapia arrived in 1977.
Together, the play-by-play men will lead Telemundo’s coverage of this summer’s World Cup - and bring their perspectives as Latino immigrants to millions of living rooms with shared experiences.
For Cantor and Tapia, who both raised their children in the United States, the ties to South America remain.
Cantor, ever the proud Argentine, says there is “no debate” when it comes to the eternal Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo conversation. Tapia, meanwhile, drinks his mate before every game, and has welcomed his two “Anglo-American” sons-in-law into the world of asado.
“I think we're an example to a lot of families,” Tapia said. “And when I'm on the air, I try to expose the way we live.”
That sort of representation will feel especially timely during this World Cup, amid the heavy mobilization of ICE against immigrant communities in the United States. Tapia and Cantor will proudly continue their Spanish-language commentary nonetheless.
The pair, who have known each other for decades, have never worked at the same network during a World Cup (they’ve called a whopping 17 between them). That has finally changed ahead of this summer, with Telemundo tapping them as the lead play-by-play men for the network’s undertaking of all 104 games.
“I think we're going to kick some a**,” Tapia said.
The Global Game Comes to the Americas
Decades before soccer became the third-biggest sport in America, according to data from The Economist earlier this year, the state of the game in the United States was vastly different.
“Pretty much there was no soccer. NASL had folded [in 1985]. There was no professional league,” said Cantor, who has achieved cult celebrity status in the US and previously voiced himself on The Simpsons.
“I remember that when I was growing up in Los Angeles, we packed the LA Coliseum for any friendly of any match, whether it be a team from El Salvador, a team from Guatemala. You had 40,000 people, because that was the only way you could see a game live really. “
That won’t be an issue during this summer’s 48-team tournament, which Cantor has dubbed the “XXL World Cup”, and for which Telemundo has recruited experts and reporters from each Latin American nation.
Cantor and Tapia, both 63, will spearhead the network’s roster of talent, which Telemundo’s Executive Vice President of Sports, Joaquin Duro, gleefully likened to the Messi-Neymar-Luis Suarez iteration of Barcelona or the Bale-Benzema-Ronaldo trio at Real Madrid.
Even if Cantor and Tapia have now earned their places among the broadcasting Galacticos, though, this tournament will be a full circle moment for both.
Tapia worked his way up from local TV in Connecticut, while Cantor started out as a print journalist before nailing a broadcast audition as a fresh-faced 20-something.
“And here we are talking about the 2026 World Cup, 40 years removed from that moment,” he said. “So I guess I did find my voice as my career progressed.”
That unique voice has been evident since, including in his reaction to Gonzalo Montiel’s winning penalty against France in 2022. Tapia, whose father and grandfather both played professional soccer, has become known as the Spanish-language voice of the Champions League. And both broadcasters are relishing the chance to call a World Cup on North American soil.
“You can see it in the passion, and you saw it in Andres crying when that goal went in,” said Duro, who is an immigrant himself.
“But at the same time… we are all from the United States. I'm from Spain. I've been here 30 years—my wife is from Alabama.”
Tapia proudly spoke about his blended allegiances as well. His wife is Colombian, he became a Boca Juniors fan while spending some of his childhood years in Argentina, and he expects his grandkids to root for the USA this summer.
But he wants to speak to an even larger audience on air.
“I want to tell the stories of the little guys,” he said, name-dropping underdogs like Curacao and Haiti.
Both broadcasters will know well that some of the best World Cup moments don’t always involve the biggest teams.
Cantor is particularly proud of the way he narrated Landon Donovan’s last-gasp goal against Algeria in 2010, while Tapia’s favorite World Cup assignment was calling his native Chile against Italy in 1998.
Of course, Argentina will be among the major storylines again, and Cantor still has high expectations for a team being led by an aging Messi.
“In Argentina, we go to extremes,” he said. “When the national team plays in a World Cup, being the runner-up is not good enough.”
Until the tournament kicks off on June 11, Cantor will continue with his diligent preparations. “I've been trying to get in the best shape of my every-four-year life,” he quips.
Tapia, meanwhile, has a pitch for those planning to watch in English.
“We have it all. We have the motion, the passion, and we're going to bring it to all the United States,” he said. “And if you don't speak the language, don't worry. You'll have fun.”
Andrés Cantor’s Top Three “Goooool” Calls
Gonzalo Montiel, Penalty Shootout, 2022 World Cup: Argentina vs. France
“Well, obviously, the viral moment of me calling Argentina's winning penalty kick in Qatar has to rank because, not for the goal itself, because the goal call was just the penalty being scored, but obviously because of what happened and how I broke up and let loose on my emotions after that, and how viral that video went worldwide, etc. I think overall, I had a very good call of that final. I didn't watch it until a year later because I didn't know how I… I was afraid of watching it because I didn't remember exactly. I mean, I was so into the moment that I didn't remember exactly what I had said. But I think overall, it was a very, very good broadcast.”
Landon Donovan, 2010 World Cup: United States vs. Algeria
Obviously, between 2002 and 2014, I called all the World Cups for my radio company, Futbol de Primera, and I had a very good call of Landon Donovan's goal against Algieria in South Africa, 2010 in the last, dying moments of the match. The US was being knocked out of the group phase, and then this counter attack happened, and Landon scored in, I think it was the 93rd. 94th minute. And I almost fainted on that call, because of what it meant.
Cristiano Ronaldo, 2018 World Cup: Portugal vs. Spain
“One of my favorite goal calls happened in Russia 2018, which was Cristiano Ronaldo's tying goal for Portugal against Spain, the 3-3. I was very lucky that the worldwide director, it looked like he was following me, because I said exactly what was going to happen. I said in Spanish, Cristiano is going to pick up the ball, he's going to put the ball. He's going to take four steps backwards. He's going to take one step to his left. He's going to have a deep breath. He's going to exhale and he's gonna hit it for tying goal. And every time I said each sequence of what happened, the camera was exactly like—I was a second behind what was being shown on TV, and it looked like I was on cue, because he did exactly, because always he has his routine. It wasn't hard to imagine that he would do that. But then I took a gamble and said, he's going to hit it with a tying golllll. And then the goal happened, you know, upper 90. So I think that was one of my most poignant play by plays.”
