How Soccer’s Biggest Announcer Trains His Voice for the World Cup

If you had to say what soccer sounds like, for a lot of fans, it’s the voice of Andrés Cantor. We met up with the announcer before the start of the World Cup to see how he trains his voice. “I wanted to get to the World Cup with the strongest voice possible.” “When you start pulling up like this — it gets very trapped.” “Before every World Cup, I ask Wendy to get me in shape. Goooaaalll! When the final whistle blows, I’m pretty much as tired as the players are.” “Goooaaalll.” Cantor’s big break came at the 1994 World Cup, the last time the United States hosted soccer’s biggest tournament. “By yelling the goal the way I yell ‘goal,’ I disrupted the broadcasting world, if you will. It was definitely a before and after moment for my career.” “Please welcome Univision’s Andrés Cantor — Andrés!” Soon, his iconic goal call was everywhere. “Nooooooo!” “This job has taken its toooaaalll.” “Obviously, my voice takes a toll. One of the things I try to do is to pronounce the last names of the players as they should be in their native tongue. You know, instead of saying, ‘Richards.’ I will say ‘Chris Richards.’ So it’s — “Let me ask you, how do singers do it when they have other engagements to do after a two and a half-hour concert?” “Sleep because sleep for the voice is one of the most important things.” But sleep might be hard to come by with the game’s spread between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It will be game, travel, game, travel. In all, I believe I have 10 games in 14 days of competition in the first round.” At the last World Cup final in 2022, Cantor had perhaps his most viral moment to date, when Argentina beat France on a penalty kick. “Goooaaalll! “It was a very emotional and very authentic broadcast because it was just myself on air, and very happy for my home country. It was something that I had been waiting for as much as all the Argentinian soccer fans for 36 years. It is incredible how many times I’ve been stopped and recognized as the man that made people cry, which is really moving. I think the FIFA World Cup being played in the U.S. with the amount of Latin American and all immigrants for that matter that already live here, I think it’s going to make this World Cup really extraordinary.”