Andrés Cantor left Telemundo to launch Netflix’s women’s World Cup coverage. Here's why. - RAW CHILI

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When veteran broadcaster Andrés Cantor suddenly left Telemundo after 26 years at the Spanish-language TV network, it caught many people in the soccer world off guard.

His new destination was even more of a surprise.

Cantor joined Netflix, whose only soccer properties right now are the 2027 and 2031 women’s FIFA World Cups. That means he won’t be heard anymore on Telemundo’s broadcast of the U.S. national teams, the English Premier League, Mexico’s Liga MX, or the rest of the network’s fast-growing portfolio — including the UEFA men’s Champions League starting next season.

Indeed, it means he won’t be heard anymore on traditional television, the medium where Cantor has been one of soccer’s most famous U.S. voices in his over 40 years on air.

“First and foremost, I think I had a good run,” he told The Inquirer. “When I moved from Univision to Telemundo, it was because I wanted new challenges, and to build something within the Hispanic media. And certainly, I think we did, through the rights acquisitions that Telemundo did — and, obviously, I was able to get back [to] doing World Cups on television.”

Cantor’s contract with Telemundo was to expire at the end of this month. That opened the door for him to consider other networks — and for other networks to pursue him.

“I want to be involved with FIFA World Cups, men’s or women’s,” he said. “And Netflix was very interested in me for a good while.”

Netflix certainly doesn’t lack for subscribers, reportedly having over 87 million in the United States. But it’s still not the same as free-to-air television, the platform that has done the most to put the World Cup into the American sports mainstream.

So Cantor understands why there was so much of a reaction, even as Netflix has made some serious hires so far. With exclusive rights in the U.S. and Canada, across English and Spanish here and English and French there, the network has made two big hires to oversee its coverage: longtime ESPN producer Matt Leach on the English side, and former Telemundo executive vice president of sports Eli Velazquez on the Spanish side.

Netflix has also announced that it will bring over NBC’s English Premier League host Rebecca Lowe on loan for its English-language studio coverage, after Fox got her on loan this past summer. Lowe will join Elle Duncan, who left ESPN last December and now works for Netflix and USA Sports.

“We’re going to be equals: the English-language production will be exactly the same as the Spanish language production in terms of set design, in terms of location, in terms of going on-site to cover all the games, in terms of the ancillary programming around the games themselves,” Cantor said. “I know they’re very ambitious. And obviously, they’re Netflix, so they’re going to have a very well-rounded production.”

Cantor is not leaving all the other soccer properties entirely. The Spanish-langauge radio network he has owned for many years, Futbol de Primera, has broadcast rights for the U.S. and Mexican national teams. (Affiliates include La Kalle in Philadelphia, 1340-AM and 99.9-FM, and broadcasts are streamed online.)

If you’ve ever heard Cantor’s famous call of Landon Donovan’s goal for the U.S. against Algeria at the 2010 World Cup, that was on the radio, not TV. He was at Telemundo then, and that tournament was Univision’s next-to-last men’s edition.

In the present, Cantor’s radio work brought to Philadelphia earlier this month to call the U.S.-Spain women’s game, and to attend a U.S. Soccer event for sponsors and donors the next day.

“We’re building a strong digital presence with different franchises and properties,” he said. “So I’m also going to focus on that entrepreneurial part of building our content hub at Fútbol de Primera.”

Cantor admitted he’ll miss calling Premier League games. But while that spoke for his heart, he also admitted that his vocal chords might have a different opinion.

“Post-World Cup, I had five-game weekends: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday,” Cantor said. “It was obviously very interesting, because it’s a lot of games on a weekend. But it’s going to be different: it’s the first time in 40 years, if you count Univision and Telemundo, that I have my weekends off without having to ask for them.”

Andrés Cantor left Telemundo to launch Netflix’s women’s World Cup coverage. Here’s why.