By Zach Lowy
When the UEFA Champions League returns in a month, millions of American viewers will be cast into a dilemma, forced to pick between a plethora of intriguing matches like Real Madrid – Monaco, Inter – Arsenal, Tottenham – Dortmund, and PSG – Sporting.
For those looking to stay up to date with all of these matches at once, there is only one option: The Golazo Show on the CBS Sports Golazo Network/Paramount+, which is hosted by none other than Nico Cantor.
Born and raised in Miami, Nico is the son of one of the greatest football announcers of all time – Andrés Cantor – and he decided to follow in his patriarch’s path.
Whilst he impressed for his high school team both in volleyball as well as a goalkeeper, wearing the captain’s armband and earning All-County honors, and leading his team to a district championship as a freshman, he never pursued it professionally.
Instead, after graduating from New York University with degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Romance Languages, he returned to Miami, where he started working for his father’s Fútbol de Primera radio station, before deciding to head to the rival network of his father’s Telemundo and join Univision Deportes (now TUDN).
Cantor worked as a studio analyst and U.S. Men’s National Team reporter, in addition to providing English and Spanish commentary for Univision’s coverage of Major League Soccer and Liga MX, polishing his skills on the assignment desk and the station’s flagship program ‘República Deportiva,’ as well as its live whip-around soccer program ‘Zona Fútbol.’
It’s why CBS, which had just replaced Turner Sports ahead of schedule as the English-language TV broadcaster of UEFA competitions, decided to make Cantor one of their first hires in October 2020. Two weeks after his Zoom interview, Cantor was headed to London to cover the UEFA Champions League.
Just as Danny Higginbotham was making the inverse move across the Atlantic and staking out a new life in the Philadelphia area, Cantor spent three years jetting back and forth between Miami and London before making the move to Connecticut in 2023 following the launch of the CBS Sports Golazo Network, the first U.S.-based digital network with 24-hour, direct-to-consumer soccer coverage.
Cantor has been able to stake out his name in a crowded field with his refreshing commentary and relentless dedication to research, keeping viewers in tune with every single Champions League / Europa League match and providing intriguing details from a number of different subjects like José Mourinho’s record at St. James’ Park to Barcelona’s mission to defend their LaLiga title.
“Ferran Torres recently said after one of the Champions League games that teams are figuring them out and that it’s been an uphill battle in that sense. That’s a little bit concerning, because their overall quality is obviously much better than the vast majority of teams that they’re playing, but every so often, the hurdles present themselves.
Suddenly the bigger teams are better defensively against them, and they’re taking them to the wire, and they’re figuring out how to play through the high press,” stated Cantor in an exclusive GBC interview.
“I would love to analyze how many touches it takes Barcelona’s opposition to score…if I had to guess, it’s probably a very low average, and that’s something Hansi Flick needs to address. It feels like for big games in the UEFA Champions League, when you’re facing the Real Madrids of the world, the Atlético Madrids of the world, the Bayerns of the world, the PSGs of the world…they’re not going to be as forgiving as some of these teams that they’re facing.”
“Losing Iñigo Martinez was huge. The backline does look a little bit disorganized; they’ve been really porous. Nothing in football is perfect, you can play the best football in the world, and eventually, other teams will start to catch up. For me, the best football team of all time was the Barcelona side that won two Champions Leagues in three years. It’s not like they won five Champions Leagues in a row.
It’s very difficult to win the Champions League, it’s a sport where you constantly need to reinvent yourself. Sometimes, the way that I hear Hansi Flick speak, he seems like he’s willing to die on this hill, because dying on that hill almost gave him a Champions League. They were so good last season, but now it’s different.
Teams have learned what they’re doing, so he has to adapt to some degree. I don’t know exactly what that is, if the press needs to get better so teams don’t play through it, if it’s dropping the lines back, which I doubt he’s gonna do. But the adaptation needs to happen, because if not, I don’t think Barcelona are going to be as successful as last season.”
Cantor spent just one year in Connecticut before returning to New York City with his wife and starting a new life in Queens. Whilst he has worked as a reporter for CBS Sports’ Concacaf and UEFA Champions League coverage and as an analyst for CBS Sports Golazo Network’s flagship morning show Morning Footy, his main event has been as the host of CBS Sports’ live whip-around program, “The Golazo Show.”
It doesn’t matter whether he’s discussing Pafos’ maiden Champions League qualification or how Thomas Grønnemark revolutionized Liverpool’s set-piece strategy, Cantor blends a masterful delivery with an elaborate command for language and culture, injecting his relentless passion for football and geography with every sentence. At 32 years of age, he’s already made his mark as one of the top young presenters in the sports industry, and he’s got his eyes set on a big 2026.
“As a broadcaster, you’ve got to be open to anything, and I think at Paramount, I feel like we’re only scratching the surface and riding this wave into the 2026 FIFA World Cup. I’m really excited for what’s to come. I don’t know what the future holds, because if you asked me what was my dream job 5 years ago when I was working at Univision, I would have probably said working in English and hosting a Champions League show.
Boom, I’m doing that, and I didn’t even see that in my future, and suddenly I’m doing that. And then, people are asking me, ‘Alright, where do you want to be in 5-10 years?’ and honestly, what I am doing right now is freaking amazing. It’s ncredible that we were able to put together a 24-7 soccer network from one moment to the next…in America, there’s a 24/7 soccer network that covers the global game in a very complete way. Whatever’s next, I think we’re ready for it.”
