youThe clip has become the viral hit of the classic World Cup final between Argentina and France, viewed at least 3.6 million times on social media: Telemundo announcer Andrés Cantor cried and wrapped his left arm around to his fellow commentator Claudio Borghi, who played in the last final in Argentina. World Cup winning team, in 1986, after Argentine Gonzalo Montiel scored the goal in the penalty shootout that gave Cantor’s home country its first World Cup title in 36 years.
“Gooooooooool!” Cantor yelled, his trademark chant that has served as the soundtrack to soccer for American audiences since 1990. “ARGENTINA CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! ARGENTINE WORLD CHAMPION! ARGENTINA WORLD CHAMPION!”
Argentina is the world champion!
Cantor bowed his head and continued to cry with joy through tears. “Messi champion of the world,” said Cantor, a nod to Argentine superstar Lionel Messi, who scored a pair of goals in the final and won the Ballon d’Or as the World Cup’s best player by winning the first world title. of his storied career. Cantor was born in Buenos Aires and moved to the United States as a teenager. At the time, Cantor failed to cover up his childhood fondness for rote professionalism, and sports fans around the world loved him for it.
Since we can all relate.
His reaction was far from scripted. “It was very, very difficult to be calm and collected,” Cantor told TIME on Monday from Qatar, where in a few hours he would board a flight back to Miami. “I tried to keep as much composure as possible. But then when the ball went in, you know, what came out, came out.”
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the curse
It was a call and a game that Cantor, along with millions around the world, will not soon forget. Argentina was up 2-0 at the end of the game and seemed to be rolling towards a title. France had barely threatened to score. “Exactly at minute 74, I asked the question on air, is this really happening?” says Cantor. “I have never seen such a dominant performance from one team over the other in a World Cup final.” Six minutes later, an Argentina penalty resulted in Kylian Mbappé’s first goal, cutting the lead in half. “I thought to myself, ‘why did I open my mouth and jinx about this?’” Cantor says.
A minute and 33 seconds later, Mbappé fired a rocket into the back of the net to tie it all. No World Cup final has ever taken such a drastic and rapid turn. Messi would score again in extra time, but Mbappé could not deny him: he fired a shot that caused a handball and converted the penalty into a hat-trick, the first in a men’s World Cup final since 1966.
France came close to crushing Argentina’s dreams just before the final whistle. But Emiliano Martínez stuck out his left leg to deflect a shot from Randal Kolo Muani, the most crucial last-second save in World Cup history, bar none. “I get goosebumps just thinking about how Argentina could have lost that,” says Cantor.
So, going into the firefight, Cantor’s emotions were already fraying. He couples that dynamic with the unique connection he shares with Argentina, and it’s no wonder Cantor had a hard time holding back tears when victory was sealed.
“Soccer is part of our DNA,” Cantor tells TIME. “It really is. And in my case, soccer is my life. I live for soccer 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, I’ve missed birthdays, graduations, going to the movies because I’m constantly watching soccer. And I guess it has a special connotation for expatriates who live outside of Argentina because we have a sense of belonging and an identification with our team, which is really stronger due to the fact that we live outside of our country of origin”.
For Cantor, who has called every World Cup since 1990, Messi belongs firmly in the pantheon of Argentina’s most beloved legends. This was not always the case, especially after Argentina’s last three consecutive international finals, at the 2014 World Cup and back-to-back Copa América finals in 2015 and 2016.
“That generation was seen as a bunch of losers,” says Cantor. “And Messi too.” However, the tide turned after Argentina’s 2021 Copa América victory and a 36-game unbeaten streak that was finally snapped by Saudi Arabia at the start of this World Cup. “Even though he is 35 and going on 36, he had an incredible World Cup,” says Cantor. “And he’s going to be right up there with Diego as the best of all time.”
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sleepless nights
Even Cantor sometimes questions his psychological investment in the sport. “Unfortunately, we take it to a level where it seems like nothing else is important in life,” says Cantor. “Sometimes we do it about life and death in a 90-minute football game. I know it shouldn’t be like this.” Cantor often talks to former players about the psychosis of fans like him. “Why are we like this?” says Cantor. “Why haven’t we slept two nights before the World Cup final? What do we have at stake here? The players are playing. And yet it’s really, really part of our DNA.”
Cantor left after the game with his daughter, who celebrated her birthday after midnight Monday in Qatar. In a restaurant at 3:30 am, the owner placed a replica of the World Cup trophy on his table. “I was like, ‘wow, is this real?’” says Cantor. “’Is this shit really happening?’” He didn’t sleep, spoke to his wife at home three times and responded to a barrage of congratulatory messages, some from strangers touched by his call. “I didn’t know so many people had my phone number,” Cantor says.
Cantor insists he would have given France its due if Les Blues had remained the first repeat champion since Brazil in 1962. “It would have been an epic moment in the history of the sport,” says Cantor. Although he was “dying inside”, Cantor marked Germany’s victory over Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final with all due enthusiasm: he only avoids tears for the Albiceleste.
“I am overwhelmed by the reaction from both Spanish-speaking and non-Spanish-speaking fans in the US who message me on my feeds,” says Cantor. “I’m just doing my job. It’s like, I get emotional when I read people saying they cried with me. And that it is much better when they listen to a Spanish commentator. I am delighted that we have been able to attract a non-Spanish speaking audience to our Telemundo broadcast.”
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Source: news.google.com