Hall of Fame broadcaster JP Dellacamera has called his last World Cup game
Though he isn’t retiring yet, the longtime voice of the Union and countless men’s and women’s soccer games is choosing to step back from the biggest stage after a tournament on home soil.
After 18 combined men’s and women’s World Cups over 40 years, American soccer’s most decorated play-by-play voice is stepping back from the sport’s biggest stage.
JP Dellacamera told The Inquirer that he has called his last World Cup game, and that it is his choice. He now waves goodbye after calling 11 men’s World Cups and seven women’s World Cups.
“Every year since 2006, the [men’s] World Cup in Germany, I have always looked at it like this could be the last one. Because you didn’t know which network [would] have it, you didn’t know about your own health and well-being — you have to stay healthy to do as many World Cups as you possibly can. … I think that the combination of this one being in our country again, and this being the last one for now on Fox, makes me want to go out this way in terms of the World Cup.”
FIFA has not started the bidding process for the 2030 and ‘34 men’s World Cups, though it has signaled it expects to soon. Fox has already lost rights to the women’s World Cup as a result of FIFA splitting them into their own deal in the U.S., with Netflix buying the 2027 tournament in Brazil and the 2031 edition that’s expected to be in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.
Dellacamera said he had early conversations with Netflix, but none for a while.
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He is not fully retiring. The 74-year-old will continue to call NWSL games for CBS Sports and ION, and hopes to continue working with Fox on its other soccer properties — in particular next year’s Concacaf Gold Cup and the 2028 European Championship.
“If Fox had [the World Cup] and they wanted me, I would stay with it,” he said. “I think I can be involved with the NWSL for two or three more years. And if Fox has other tournaments and they want me to do them, I can still do them.”
Otherwise, he said, “it was not a hasty decision. I’ve thought about it. But it’s the right time.”
The record will show that his last World Cup game was the Switzerland-Algeria round of 32 contest in Vancouver, B.C., on July 2. Coincidentally, one of his most famous days on air came in the same city and stadium, BC Place: the 2015 women’s World Cup final, where Carli Lloyd’s hat trick carried the U.S. to its first championship in 16 years.
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“When you’re doing [a call with] a world feed and you’re not sure what the next picture is going to be, I don’t like to get caught in a story,” he said. “And I didn’t want to make it sound like it was me and my memory. So I passed on it, but I did think about it for sure.”
The previous title in 1999 still stands as No. 1, when he was on ABC’s call (which FIFA used as the world feed) of the final that vaulted women’s soccer into America’s mainstream for the first time. As has long been his trademark, he kept his call of Brandi Chastain’s winning penalty kick to just one syllable — “Goal!” — and let the scene carry the rest.
Dellacamera worked nine games this summer, all with former U.S. women’s team and Philadelphia Independence midfielder Lori Lindsey. The first of them was Ivory Coast-Ecuador at Lincoln Financial Field, which let him return to the city where he was the Union’s local TV voice for over a decade. Last year, the club named the main broadcast at Subaru Park in his honor.
“Sometimes I look at signs, and one of the signs was that my very first game was going to be in Philadelphia, where I spent 13 years with the Union,” he said. “And so that meant something to me.”
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Not all nine games were classics, but he got his share of drama: late winners in Ivory Coast-Ecuador and Ghana-Panama, Cape Verde fighting Uruguay to a 2-2 tie, and the wild endings to Austria-Algeria and Belgium-Senegal. Those moments and others brought the latest rounds of praise from viewers who have long enjoyed hearing Dellacamera’s calls.
“People have said a lot of kind things to me over the years,” he said. “The one that usually gets to me is when somebody thanks me for being the voice for them for so long. You don’t realize that until somebody says, ‘You’re the voice I grew up with.’ … Things like that, they mean a lot to me, and I think as you get closer to the end of your career, it means more than it ever did.”
He got his start in 1986, calling the action in Mexico for ESPN from the CBC’s studios in Toronto. (Once that summer, he infamously received a feed of a different game than the one he was supposed to call, and had to pivot without any preparation.)
He was with ESPN for a long time, calling games on TV and radio. In early 2011, he moved to Fox. When the network’s World Cup deal started in 2015 he became its top voice on U.S. women’s games and a stalwart of men’s tournaments.
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Over the years, he has achieved the rare feat of calling games for six different networks: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, and TNT.
In 2018, the National Soccer Hall of Fame gave Dellacamera its Colin Jose Media Award for lifetime achievement. He was the first play-by-play broadcaster to earn the honor.
“I’ve never taken World Cups for granted,” he said. “The fact that I did one didn’t mean I was guaranteed to do two; the fact that I did six didn’t mean I was going to get to seven. So, I’ve never looked at it that way. It’s always been a privilege to do it — and you have to have luck in this business, too.”
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These days, there are more American voices calling the world’s game than ever. John Strong leads Fox’s men’s soccer coverage, Tyler Terens joined the network this summer after years calling MLS games on Apple TV, and Mike Watts is a stalwart voice of the NWSL and USL. Dellacamera appreciates how they are another sign of the sport’s growth.
“The future of American soccer broadcasting is in great hands because of all the young talent that we’ve been able to develop over the years,” he said. “I’m very comfortable in knowing that we have a lot of depth, and a lot of talent.”
In this World Cup, underdogs have stolen the spotlight, the U.S. men made a notable run and Philadelphia not only welcomed the world but gave visitors a crash course on just how real the curse of the Rocky Statue can be.
Join Jonathan Tannenwald, the Inquirer's soccer writer, and host Lisa Carlin, analyst for CBS Sports Golazo, as they dissect the matches, the moments, and more as Philly has its moment in soccer's brightest spotlight. Watch our latest episode right here.
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Episode 1: The Wait is Over!
Episode 2: Groups, Goals, and Glory
Episode 3: Electric Action in Philly
Episode 4: The Knockout Rounds Begin!
