Alexi Lalas refuses to call it football: ‘It makes you look like a weak poser’

Alexi Lalas has never met a hill he didn’t want to die on, and this week’s hill is, of all things, vocabulary.

A fan pushed back on the Fox Sports studio analyst for repeatedly saying “soccer” instead of “football,” arguing that even American players make the switch in overseas interviews as a basic show of respect for the global game, but Lalas was unmoved.

“Yeah…that’s not gonna happen,” he wrote. “I call it soccer. I own it proudly. I never apologize for it. If you grew up calling it soccer and changed out of insecurity or some misguided belief it makes you more authentic/credible…it doesn’t. It’s cringe. It makes you look like a weak poser.”

Yeah…that’s not gonna happen. I call it soccer. I own it proudly. I never apologize for it. If you grew up calling it soccer and changed out of insecurity or some misguided belief it makes you more authentic/credible…it doesn’t. It’s cringe. It makes you look like a weak poser. https://t.co/QafqhKGsBP

— Alexi Lalas (@AlexiLalas) June 18, 2026

It’s worth noting that this is the same Alexi Lalas who called James Corden a “full kit wanker” on live national television earlier this tournament, leaving Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and Rebecca Lowe visibly stunned at the desk. There is apparently some British words he is perfectly comfortable deploying on American TV for an American audience, but “football” is not one of them.

His colleagues on that desk — Lowe from NBC’s Premier League coverage, Henry from CBS’s Champions League coverage — have spent their careers speaking to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and presumably say “football” without anyone accusing them of being posers for it, or questioning their authenticity. And Zlatan, who spent his career playing in England, Spain, France, and Italy, before coming over to the States to play for the LA Galaxy, probably says it too.

Lalas isn’t entirely wrong that changing what you call the sport out of insecurity doesn’t make you more credible. If you grew up saying “soccer,” you grew up saying “soccer,” and no amount of switching to “football” is going to make Thierry Henry respect you more. And Lalas would know, considering his colleagues have already shown what they think of him for being authentically himself all tournament long, to the point where Lowe felt compelled to go on The Dan Patrick Show and insist that “everyone loves each other.”

Not everyone loves Lalas’ persona, which he openly admits is a costume, but even in character, apparently, some things are sacred. Calling it “soccer” is one of them.