William Morris Endeavor is suing Spanish-language sportscaster Andrés Cantor, most famous for his signature call of “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL!”
The Argentinian-born sports commentator, who has worked for Telemundo and NBC Sports, left the talent agency in March 2010, but in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Florida federal court, WME says it is still owed commissions.
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Cantor’s relationship with WME goes back to 1994, a few years after he became famous to U.S. audiences by jazzing up the 1990 FIFA World Cup with his dramatic play-by-play. His work calling soccer matches made him an instant star with guest appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman.
According to WME’s complaint, Cantor entered into a written, exclusive agency agreement that gave WME a 10% interest in his compensation. The agreement was extended twice, the last time being 1999, wherein WME says that the agency agreement would continue indefinitely until expressly terminated by either party.
In 2006, Cantor’s career made another jump with a five-year agreement to serve as a sports announcer, commentator and host for Telemundo.
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WME claimed 10% commissions for negotiating that deal and says that it got full payments until September 2009, at which point Cantor allegedly fell behind in sending owed commissions.
A few months later, Cantor sent an email terminating the agency agreement. “Nonetheless, under the terms of the Agency Agreement, Defendants’ commissions obligations with respect to the Telemundo Agreement continued for so long as Defendants received compensation under the Telemundo Agreement,” says WME, represented by Clinton Payne.
The talent agency now says it is owed commissions on the fourth year of the Telemundo deal (2009-2010) and the fifth year of the deal (2010-2011), totaling in excess of $75,000.
Cantor couldn’t be reached for comment. Here’s his play-by-play of the Landon Donovan goal in the U.S.’s super dramatic defeat of Algeria in the last World Cup. Turn up the volume…
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