Forty years after calling his first World Cup match from a CBC studio in Toronto, JP Dellacamera has called his last.
Dellacamera told The Philadelphia Inquirer the combination of the tournament returning to American soil and Fox’s current deal winding down made this the right moment to step away from the sport’s biggest stage after four decades. His final broadcast was Switzerland-Algeria in Vancouver on July 2 — the last of nine matches he worked this summer alongside analyst Lori Lindsey — closing out a run of 18 combined men’s and women’s World Cups that began in 1986.
The 74-year-old will continue calling NWSL games for CBS Sports and ION, and told the Inquirer he hopes to keep working with Fox on other properties, including next year’s Concacaf Gold Cup and the 2028 UEFA Euro.
A return to the World Cup is a longer shot, given that Fox has already lost the women’s tournament rights after FIFA packaged them separately, with Netflix acquiring the 2027 and 2031 editions. Dellacamera said he had early conversations with Netflix about a potential role in that coverage, but nothing has come of it since. The bidding for the 2030 and 2034 men’s tournaments hasn’t opened yet, but if Fox is not among the winners, Dellacamera’s World Cup career is over regardless.
“I’ve never taken World Cups for granted,” he told the Inquirer. “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.”
His final match in Vancouver was a fitting bookend, as BC Place was the same stadium where Dellacamera called the 2015 Women’s World Cup final alongside Cat Whitehill and Tony DiCicco — a moment Awful Announcing framed at the time as American soccer broadcasting coming full circle — after years in which Dellacamera had been passed over as ESPN leaned into British announcers for its World Cup coverage.
Forty years after calling his first World Cup game for ESPN, he signed off in Vancouver with 18 tournaments behind him and the sport in considerably better shape than he found it.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.