{"id":216470,"date":"2026-07-09T15:14:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/exclusive-andres-cantor-recalls-ditching-school-as-a-boy-to-watch-argentina-during-world-cup-today-com\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:14:06","slug":"exclusive-andres-cantor-recalls-ditching-school-as-a-boy-to-watch-argentina-during-world-cup-today-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/exclusive-andres-cantor-recalls-ditching-school-as-a-boy-to-watch-argentina-during-world-cup-today-com\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Andr\u00e9s Cantor Recalls Ditching School as a Boy to Watch Argentina During World Cup – TODAY.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon Finds for the Perfect Summer Staycation<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Liz Calvario
Senior Editor
For hundreds of thousands of soccer fans, Andr\u00e9s Cantor is the voice of their generation.
The Argentine Telemundo sportscaster is famously known for his Spanish and English commentary during matches, but especially for his enthusiastic shouting of \u201cGoooooooooal!\u201d He first introduced it during the 1990 World Cup.
Cantor, who has been announcing matches since 1987<\/a>, has been bellowing his signature word for audiences worldwide during the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a>. With almost four decades behind the mic, for some viewers (especially Latino households), he\u2019s just as famous as the stars on the pitch.
He calls his celebrity status \u201cstrange,\u201d in an interview with TODAY.com, as he\u2019s usually the one off-camera shining the light on the players. That\u2019s why while recently traveling from city to city during the tournament, he experienced an unforgettable moment.
\u201cThey were showing the games on the plane and then halftime comes and the Coors commercial that I star in<\/a> goes live,\u201d Cantor says. \u201cThe guy next to me starts looking like, \u2018Wait, isn\u2019t that you?\u2019 \u2018Yeah,\u2019 (I say). I think he wanted to tell the entire plane that I was sitting right next to him.\u201d
The man asked for a selfie, Cantor recalls, adding that it was a memorable experience because while working he doesn\u2019t get to watch the ads.
\u201cBut I was traveling and watching the game, and then suddenly, (on) all the monitors on that plane the commercial came up,\u201d he says. \u201cI took a picture. I posted it because it was really, really sweet.\u201d
With a handful of games under his belt this World Cup, Cantor says he knew this year\u2019s matches would be \u201cstar power at its best.\u201d He also notes the spectacular camaraderie across nations and the fans\u2019 excitement.
\u201cThe atmosphere all around the country has been incredible. We knew that this tournament was going to be like this,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s exceeding many people\u2019s expectations because, obviously, the atmosphere, not only in the stadiums, but in the cities where the games are played.\u201d
Below, in his own words, Cantor shares his earliest World Cup memories, the moment he would\u2019ve loved to announce and his craziest fan experience.
Definitely when I ditched school in 1974 to go to the cafe in the corner of my school in Argentina to watch the games in black-and-white (on) television. That was my first experience of living such a big tournament like this from afar.
Then I was very lucky to be in the stands when Argentina won in 1978. And then ever since I\u2019ve been involved, one way or the other, with this wonderful tournament that is played every four years.
I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to be in the best seat of the house at every World Cup since 1990, and I got to call the most epic moments of each tournament.
I didn\u2019t get to call (Diego) Maradona in \u201886 because I was a writer. I wrote for an Argentinian magazine. But I lived history the day that he scored the goal against England, and then he went on to win the World Cup. I\u2019ve been around the Women\u2019s (World Cup) games, around the Olympics. So if there is something that I would have wanted to do that I didn\u2019t \u2014 because I was writing at the time, not calling games \u2014 (it) would be to call Maradona\u2019s second goal against England on television.
Pretty much everywhere. One of the craziest things that happened to me was two years ago during the Women\u2019s World Cup. I arrived, I believe it was in Melbourne. The driver that picked me up was from Iraq. He asked me if I was there for the games and he said, \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d I said, \u201cArgentina.\u201d He starts saying, \u201cOh, did you see that man that cried when Argentina won the World Cup that went viral?\u201d
I started buying time so I could find the video on my phone and I handed it to him. This guy, he started looking in the rear view mirror and freaked out, pulled to the side. He said, \u201cYou\u2019re an idol in my country. It\u2019s getting late. Can I ask you for a favor? I know I\u2019m taking you to the hotel, but we\u2019re 20 minutes away. Can we Facetime with my family back in Iraq?\u201d Just in the middle of the road, two guys outside of the car. That was kind of crazy.
Liz Calvario is a Los Angeles-based senior editor for TODAY.com who covers entertainment, pop culture and trending news.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLCApple\u00ae, Apple logo\u00ae and App Store\u00ae are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Amazon Finds for the Perfect Summer Staycation Liz CalvarioSenior EditorFor hundreds of thousands of soccer fans, Andr\u00e9s Cantor is the voice of their generation.The Argentine Telemundo sportscaster is famously known for his Spanish and English commentary during matches, but especially for his enthusiastic shouting of \u201cGoooooooooal!\u201d He first introduced it during the 1990 World Cup. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}