The CBS Sports broadcaster, Coconut Grove native and rising voice in American soccer media is spending the 2026 World Cup crisscrossing America in a motorhome, documenting the passion and culture behind the world’s biggest sporting event.
As billions of soccer fans across the globe prepare to gather in pubs, cafés, living rooms, public squares and watch parties of all varieties to witness the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off this Thursday, Nico Cantor will spend his days (and nights) chasing the game one highway at a time.
Over 41 days, the CBS Sports broadcaster and Coconut Grove native will travel the country in a motorhome, attending 15 matches and stopping in communities where soccer fandom runs deep. His mission: to document the people, places and traditions that transform a sporting event into a global cultural phenomenon.
Cantor is well-positioned to tell that story.
A lifelong soccer fanatic, Cantor was a standout youth soccer player growing up in Coconut Grove. A goalkeeper, he twice captained his high school team at Ransom Everglades before a stint playing collegiately.
Since then, he has steadily built a broadcasting career that has taken him around the world, where he reports on the game at the highest levels of competition for club and country.
He is also the son of Andrés Cantor, the legendary broadcaster whose booming, elongated “goooooool” call has made him the most recognizable voice in Spanish-language soccer for more than three decades.
And yet Nico, 32, has definitely found a voice of his own.
Today, he hosts CBS Sports’ popular “The Golazo Show,” serves as a reporter and analyst on the network’s coverage of the UEFA Champions League and international soccer, and has already covered three FIFA World Cups.
Fluent in four languages — English, Spanish, French and Portuguese — Cantor has conducted on-air interviews in all of them, delivering analysis with a style that is equal parts informed, conversational and disarmingly playful.
“It’s a massive advantage for someone who covers international soccer,” said the younger Cantor, whose father was born in Argentina. “I started speaking French in elementary school, and I picked up Portuguese pretty quickly in college.”
Added Andrés, the father: “Nico was in Morocco recently. I saw him being interviewed in French on Moroccan TV, and I was like, ‘Wow!’ Nico speaks French like a Frenchman.”
Cantor’s cross-country road trip comes as South Florida prepares for its own starring role in the 2026 World Cup.
Hard Rock Stadium will host seven World Cup matches, including a quarterfinal and the bronze-medal match, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors to Miami-Dade County and cementing the region’s status as one of the sport’s global crossroads.
The tournament will be held June 11 to July 19 in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
“Having the World Cup in our backyard will help establish more Miami roots for our great sport,” Cantor told the Spotlight recently during a rare and brief pause in his travels. “This will help strengthen what is already a robust soccer community.
“It’s a great time to be a soccer fan in Miami, and not just because of the World Cup,” Cantor said. “Inter Miami, with (global superstar Lionel) Messi, is a soccer club known throughout the world. FIFA has offices in Miami. Argentina’s futbol federation has offices here. Miami, along with New York, has become the place to be for soccer in the U.S.”
Cantor’s soccer education began in earnest when he enrolled at Ransom Everglades in the seventh grade. During his high school years, Ransom fielded talented teams and developed a fierce rivalry with nearby Gulliver Prep.
Ransom reached the regional semifinals twice during Cantor’s tenure, but Gulliver often stood in the way of a deeper playoff run.
“That Gulliver rivalry was everything back then,” Cantor said. “For us, it was like Barcelona versus Real Madrid. It was around that time that Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi were playing for those great clubs in Spain. So, for our level, that’s what it felt like — high pressure and high stakes.
“It was the best time of my life,” he said, “and I don’t think it can ever be replicated.”
As a ninth grader, Cantor was selected ahead of a high school senior to become Ransom’s starting goalkeeper. Former coaches and teammates recall that his success stemmed as much from his leadership as his ability to stop shots, describing him as a player who elevated those around him and helped set the tone for the team both on and off the field.
By his senior year, they say, he had become an extension of the coaching staff, making sure teammates were on time, focused and committed to the team’s goals.
His later success in broadcasting came as little surprise to those who knew him. Former coaches remember him as a natural communicator — a vocal presence on the field who could organize a defense, make quick decisions and earn the trust of teammates.
After high school, Cantor enrolled at New York University, an NCAA Division III school. Cantor said he only played a couple of years as a walk-on athlete. More important, he recalled, the school helped launch his career in broadcast journalism.
Cantor pursued a double major in broadcast journalism and romance languages, taking advantage of the school’s Manhattan location to gain practical reporting experience in one of the world’s busiest news environments.
One assignment challenged students to find a story connected to their hometown. With the New York City Marathon approaching, Cantor tracked down a contestant with an extraordinary record. “I found a runner from Miami who had run something like 500 marathons,” he said.
Cantor pitched the story to The Miami Herald, which published it.
It was an early journalistic thrill for Cantor. After graduating from NYU in 2016, he worked for his father’s multi-media company, Futbol De Primera, home to a nationally syndicated radio show. Nico Cantor later worked for Univision.
Cantor’s career took off shortly after CBS acquired the rights to broadcast the UEFA Champions League in 2020. He was hired to host The Golazo Show, a live studio program that cuts in real time among simultaneous matches, giving viewers instant access to the competition’s biggest moments as they unfold.
Andrés Cantor said he is “enormously proud” of what his son has accomplished.
“When Nico was about 15, we would sit on the couch together on weekends, watching soccer games,” Andrés Cantor said. “We would talk tactics and about who was playing well, and I could tell he had a good eye for details and a clear understanding of the game.”
As Nico Cantor’s career has evolved, his father views him as a “natural” on set.
“His flow, his delivery, his knowledge,” the elder Cantor said. “But, most of all, it’s his preparation that is unparalleled. With Nico, he doesn’t just research the team. He finds out about the city and the country, and he presents a report that brings cultural and historical context.”
Ransom Everglades’ current head soccer coach, Teo D’Elia, first met Cantor while they worked together at Univision. Years later, when an assistant coaching position opened at Cantor’s alma mater, Cantor encouraged him to apply. D’Elia eventually rose through the program and now serves as the Raiders’ head coach.
“I met a lot of people in 12 years at Univision and ESPN,” D’Elia said. “I consider Nico to be one of the most informed and prepared journalists I’ve ever met.”
Among Cantor’s regular on-air counterparts is retired goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, the Manchester United and Danish national team legend. The two former goalkeepers have developed an amusing on-air rapport that has become a hit on social media, with much of the humor stemming from the fact that Schmeichel is one of the greatest goalkeepers in soccer history and Cantor, well, is not.
“The fact that I get to be on the air with one of the greatest players in soccer history is a dream,” Cantor said. “Sometimes Peter will ask my opinion on a particular goalie, which is wild. I have so much respect for Peter’s career.”
Cantor, who now lives in New York City, visits Coconut Grove as often as he can, and, when he’s in town, he’s sure to participate in pick-up soccer games with old friends.
Time has softened one of South Florida soccer’s fiercest rivalries. Many of the Gulliver players Cantor once viewed as adversaries are now close friends. The connection came full circle a few years ago when Luchi Gonzalez, who coached Gulliver during Cantor’s high school days, had a stint as head coach of Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas and Cantor found himself calling one of his matches as a broadcaster.
Beyond that, Cantor is still close with his former teammates from Ransom Everglades, who are eagerly awaiting next year’s 15-year class reunion.
“The Grove is my ‘hood,” Cantor said. “All my friends live there. I can still go to Barracuda [Tap house & Grill] on any given Friday night and still see half my friends. I love calling Coconut Grove home. It’s a beautiful place.”
To follow Nico’s World Cup cross-country adventures, visit CBS Sports Golazo Network and follow his reporting throughout the tournament
