What's the origin of Spanish-language football announcers shouting "GOOOOOOAL!" ?
July 2, 2010 4:32 PM   Subscribe

What's the origin of Spanish-language football announcers shouting "GOOOOOOAL!" ?
posted by Joe Beese to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (12 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
The origin? I don't get it. Gol is the Spanish translation of "goal." A team just scored. They're excited.

Are you asking for the first person to do it? The first goal that evoked a prolonged shout? I don't know, but I always assumed it was only "a thing" for American English-speakers who generally are less interested in soccer than the rest of the world and find the announcers amusing and entertaining.
posted by kochenta at 4:40 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Andres Cantor became famous for doing this during the 1994 World Cup. He did it because that's just the type of guy he was and everyone else copied him (he probably wasn't the first, but he's definitely why it caught on).
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 4:42 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


I definitely remember hearing it as early as Mexico 86. I'm sure that sort of thing existed for decades beforehand, though. I mean, as kochenta notes, it's no different than an American announcer shouting "TOUCHDOOOOWN!" after Notre Dame or the Corboys or whoever score one of those.
posted by dersins at 4:49 PM on July 2, 2010


I heard an interview recently with Andres Cantor (who is probably most famous for this goal call); he said announcers in his native Argentina always call a goal this way and that's where he got it from.
posted by unrulychild at 4:52 PM on July 2, 2010


People scream when they get excited.
posted by fire&wings at 4:58 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, but no American announcers yell "TOUCHDOOOOOOOWN" for as long as they possibly can. And apparently some of them train to yell longer or something, because they yell for a damn long time. I wouldn't even think to dispute its meme status.

Although, I prefer the more recent, "GOL! GOL! GOL! GOOOOOOL!"
posted by cmoj at 5:12 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I had the Uruguay-Ghana game on via the CBC which has a British announcer. Evidently the Uruguayan booth was right next to his as you could hear them, but just barely:

[Foreground]:"It's a goal! Marvelous! What a shot!"
[Background]:...ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!!
posted by PercussivePaul at 5:15 PM on July 2, 2010 [20 favorites]


It's no different than any of the home run calls you see on TV or hear on the radio. "Holy Cow!"by Phil Rizzuto/Harry Carrey or "Outta Here!" by Harry Kalas. The length of it is Cantor's trademark.
posted by inturnaround at 5:21 PM on July 2, 2010


Response by poster: cmoj: "Yeah, but no American announcers yell "TOUCHDOOOOOOOWN" for as long as they possibly can. And apparently some of them train to yell longer or something, because they yell for a damn long time. I wouldn't even think to dispute its meme status.

Although, I prefer the more recent, "GOL! GOL! GOL! GOOOOOOL!"
"

Exactly. I don't hear anything the least spontaneous in it.

Now it might be a tradition so steeped in Latin American football antiquity that its origins are untraceable. But I definitely believe it's as much "a thing" to them as it is to American English-speakers.

Not a fan of "GOL, GOL, GOL!" Sounds too much like a siren.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:18 PM on July 2, 2010


The Argentine sports broad-caster Andres Cantor made it famous.
It is his signature call.
posted by Flood at 7:06 PM on July 2, 2010


Andrés Cantor made it famous in the US, but it goes way, way back, almost certainly to radio days.
posted by Kattullus at 9:03 PM on July 2, 2010


What Kattullus said. People in the US became aware of it in '94, but it's been the standard thing forever. The language lends itself to that naturally.
posted by ambrosia at 10:46 PM on July 2, 2010


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