Andrés Cantor

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 Losada, 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, of a heart attack at the age of 62.

Both Cantor and Longo, though knowledgeable about the game, had a knack for conspicuous support on Latin American teams during their World Cup broadcasts, at times to the point of degrading the performances of European, African and Asian teams. This format of broadcasting was especially prevalent in the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, becoming less notable in the 1998 World Cup (with the probable exception of the Argentina vs England match). In the 1990 World Cup Round of 16 match between Cameroon and Colombia, for example, (that the Africans won in OT), Cantor, who was broadcasting the match for Univision, started complaining in Spanish in sheer frustration (after Roger Milla scored two goals in succession for Cameroon) that the Colombians are better than the Cameronians, that the score is inexcusable, etc., thus losing his focus on the commentary.

Cantor is famous for his signature call of "¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL!", 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. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Cantor provided only Spanish-language commentary for the Telemundo network.

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 left for more (football)").

In 2008 he appeared in Speed Racer as one of the Grand Prix Announcers.

His favorite team is Boca Juniors from Argentina.

External links

* [http://espanol.sports.yahoo.com/editoriales/telemundo/category/Andr%C3%A9s+Cantor Andrés Cantor on Telemundo Deportes]
* [http://www.laradiodelmundial.com/andres.htm More on Cantor]
* [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/QandA/2002/1216/ Q&A from "SI" in December 2002 with Cantor]

Cantor is featured at the beginning of No Use For a Name's song "Not your savior"