Andrés Cantor

Andrés Cantor (born December 22, 1962) is a Argentine-born Spanish-language sportscaster in the United States. Cantor primarily provides Spanish-language commentary of soccer matches, though he covers other sports as well; he also has provided soccer commentary in English and is well known among English-speakers in the United States.^[1]

Early life

Cantor was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He moved with his family to the Southern California area when he was a teen, where he attended San Marino High School and then graduated from the University of Southern California.^[2] Andrés is of Jewish descent. His mother was born in Romania and migrated to Argentina at the age of 13, while his father was born in Argentina. His paternal grandparents were from Poland, and fled during the Nazi occupation.^[3] His favorite team is Boca Juniors from Argentina.

Professional career

Cantor is famous for his signature bellowing of "Gooooooool!" after a score in soccer. This practice started in Brazil in the 1940s, and since then has become almost universal throughout Latin America.^[4] It stemmed from the desire to let families and friends who have stepped away from a game know that a goal has been scored.^[5] However, due to translation and cultural dissonance issues, it was largely absent from the lexicon of UK-based soccer play-by-play commentators. Cantor was the first to introduce this climactic scoring call to a U.S. audience while working at Univision, 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.^[6] He says that Diego Maradona's goal at the 1986 World Cup, in which he ran from midfield past five English 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. The yell was also used in a popular Volkswagen commercial that aired in the U.S. around the time of the 1998 World Cup.

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 más" ("The referee says there is no time for more").

Telemundo/NBC Deportes

Cantor currently works for NBC Deportes, NBC Sports's Spanish-language division, and does play-by-play for matches on both Telemundo and its sister cable network NBC Universo. 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 baseball. He went to Telemundo after several years at Univisión.^[7] Telemundo's other anchor for the games, Jessí Losada, worked with Cantor at Univisión before also leaving. Also, Norberto Longo, Cantor's longtime partner in the broadcast booth and Univision's lead sports analyst, took the same role at Telemundo until his death on April 21, 2003, of a heart attack at the age of 61.^[8] XM Satellite Radio, in partnership with Cantor launched a Spanish-language sports network.^[9]

Cantor anchored Telemundo's coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London from the network's studios in Hialeah, Florida. He was also the play-by-play announcer for soccer during the games.^[10]

Futbol de Primera Radio Network

Andrés Cantor is the owner and main play by play announcer of Futbol de Primera, a radio network which owns the Spanish-language radio rights of the FIFA World Cups 2002/2006/2010/2014 as well as the Mexico national team, CONCACAF Gold Cup among other sports properties. Andrés Cantor hosts a daily show, Futbol de Primera, which airs nationally on more than 100 affiliates.

NBC Sports

Cantor's first English-language assignment was the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he called both men's and women's soccer for NBC, complete with his sig. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Cantor provided only Spanish-language commentary for sister network Telemundo.

Other notable accomplishments

In 2008, Cantor appeared in the American live-action film Speed Racer as one of the grand prix announcers.^[11]

Cantor is the author of the book Goooal! a Celebration of Soccer.^[12] Andres Cantor's appearance booking fee can range from $5,000 to $10,000.^[13]

In 2010, Cantor was featured in the Mike McGlone series of GEICO commercials where he is introduced as an announcer who could make any sport exciting. Subsequently, the camera cuts to him animatedly announcing a chess match.^[14]

In 2011, he is uncredited for the role of the Spanish soccer announcer in an episode of the Disney Channel series Phineas and Ferb.

U.S. show Person of Interest used his 'Goooooooool' in the episode "Cura te ipsum." When Reese and Fusco confront the drug dealers at their apartment, there is a goal scored during a soccer match on the television. The famous "Gooooooool", seen in the U.S. on NBC's Deportes Telemundo network, can be heard in the background.

In 2014, Cantor was featured in an ad campaign for Volkswagen of America. The campaign was launched for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and depicts him offering play-by-play announcing while his son Nicolas Cantor^[15] drives a new Volkswagen Golf GTI.^[16]

Cantor was featured as an announcer in the Walt Disney film Muppets Most Wanted on March 2014.

He voiced himself in the Simpsons episode You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee on FOX.

Awards

In 1994, Cantor was honored as "Sports Personality of the Year" by the American Sportscaster Association.^[17] He won a regional Emmy Award for his play-by-play work during the U.S. World Cup 1994.^[18] In 2004, Cantor received the Hispanic Heritage Award.^[19] Also that year he won the Broadcasting & Cable/Multichannel News Lifetime Achievement Award in Hispanic Television.^[20] In 2005, Cantor received an honorary Emmy from the NATPE for his contributions to Hispanic television.^[21] In 2014, Cantor received an Emmy at the 35th annual Sports Emmy Awards for best on-air personality in Spanish.^[22] FIFA Magazine named Cantor as one of the world's most legendary broadcasters ^[23]

References

External links

• Andrés Cantor at the Internet Movie Database
• Q&A from SI in December 2002 with Cantor