Andrés Cantor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrés Cantor is a popular Spanish-language sportscaster in the United States. Born in Argentina, Mr. Cantor primarily provides Spanish-language commentary of football matches, though he covers other sports as well; he also has provided football commentary in English. As a result, he is well known among anglophones in the United States.
Cantor currently works for Telemundo, one of NBC Universal's networks. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, where Telemundo was the first-ever U.S. Spanish-language network to broadcast the Olympics, Cantor worked as both a studio anchor and the play-by-play announcer for football. He went to Telemundo from Univisión. Telemundo's other anchor for the Games, Jessí Losáda, worked with Cantor at Univisión before jumping ship himself. Also, Cantor's football partner of almost a decade in Univisión, Norberto Longo, the lead sports analyst for Univisión, also moved to work with Cantor for Telemundo until his death on April 21, 2003, at the age of 62.
Cantor is famous for his signature call of "¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL!", which he originated while working at Univisión, making him popular with American audiences. He first used it at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, but it became especially popular during the 1994 World Cup, which was held in the United States. It became so popular, in fact, that Cantor made guest appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman during the '94 and '98 tournaments, and after the tournament was over. He was broadcasting from Paris for the Late Show during the 1998 World Cup. The call is now being sold as a ringtone on Telemundo's website.
Cantor graduated from the University of Southern California, and says that Diego Maradona's goal at the 1986 World Cup in which he ran from midfield past five England defenders to score brought tears to his eyes (Cantor was working at the game). That goal became known as the "Goal of the Century," and took place after the infamous "Hand of God" goal.
Cantor's first English-language assignment was the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he called both men's and women's football for NBC.
Another unique line of Cantor's can be heard whenever a game reaches half-time or is over. He delivers the line, "El árbitro dice que no hay tiempo para mas" ("The referee says there is no time left for more (football)").
