‘You’re history itself!’: how Arab World Cup commentators fuel fans’ passions | Middle East and north Africa

toEven before Cristiano Ronaldo’s close-range shot hit the goal, the commentator started shouting. “Allllllllaaaaa!!!!” he shouted BeIN Sports’ Omani football commentator Amer al-Khudhiri said that the Portuguese star scored his first goal of the 2026 World Cup against Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

He took a deep breath and then started talking to himself. “I knew he came for revenge. I knew he would answer everyone, the world, the World Cup, the skeptics, those who lost their memory,” Al-Khudhiri said. “Oh history, put Ronaldo here as Portugal’s all-time top scorer throughout its entire history. God, God, God!”

Al-Khudhiri spoke philosophically for more than a minute and a half. “I knew my night would be long and I knew my words would fail me and I knew my vocal cords might tear but I’m still ready for it, happy, heaven-embracing Ronaldo,” he said, his voice trailing off towards the end.

With a record number of Middle Eastern teams participating in the 2026 World Cup, more fans than ever are flocking to matches across the region. But rather than the players stealing the show, it is the Arab football announcers and their poetic comments.

From crowded beach cafes in Lebanon, where excited fans push tired plastic chairs to their limits, to air-conditioned restaurants in the Gulf, the booming voices of commentators such as al-Khudhiri and Tunisia’s Issam Chaouali soundtrack the action.

“Language does more than heighten the drama, it somehow extends time. A two-second sequence turns into a full paragraph. The expectation becomes what you consume, not just the goal,” said Hazar al-Kilani, 27, a public relations executive living in Doha.

Clips of football matches go viral in the Arab world not only for good play but also for the drama of the commentary that accompanies it. Watching this commentary in real time motivates even those who aren’t usually World Cup fans.

Cherly Abou Chabke, 25, a Lebanese TV channel reporter, said: “We know how to put on a show, and even if you don’t understand football and you’re watching the game, I think you’ll be excited to hear this beautiful commentary, which is basically like a love letter to football.”

Commentators like Chaouali are famous in the English-language media world for their passionate reporting, breaking away from the clinical play expected. They keep the audience on the edge of their seats, their voices getting louder and faster as a player approaches the goal.

17th behind Lionel Messi’s record. World Cup goalYemeni commentator Hasan al-Aidarous showed off his rhetorical skills with a goal against Austria.

“Let history open its arms. Let the world witness this moment. Let the victory be engraved forever and ever. I don’t call you Leo, I call you history itself!” he said. “For if there is a king of glory, then you are the king of glory. If there is a king of records, then you are the king of records. And if there is a leader of legends, then you are the leader of legends through all the ages.”

The Arabic interpretation is against the genre. Announcers take fans on winding journeys, reacting with sadness when a chance is missed, shouting passionately when a goal is scored, or giving love advice when the opportunity arises.

The key to interpretation is the Arabic language itself. There is a long oral tradition in the Middle East where people would sit for hours and impromptu poetry slams, demonstrating their mastery of a rich language that is said to have as many as 500 different ways to say “lion.”

Similar to impromptu poetry sessions, part of the fun of watching football in Arabic is the creativity of the commentators who enjoy their command of the language. Chaouali, one of the Arab world’s most famous commentators, studied philology before becoming a broadcaster.

Al-Kilani said: “Arabic has a classical rhetoric. balagaand a literary culture that has put the poet at the center since the pre-Islamic odes… Commentary has stepped into an already existing seat.”

Even those who grew up in multilingual families agree that watching football in Arabic is a completely different experience.

“If I had the option to watch the match in French, Arabic or English, I wouldn’t think twice about it. I would automatically choose the Arabic one,” said Abou Chabke. “Arabic literature is the cornerstone of our identity, and interpreters know very well how to develop it.”

Arab commentators provide, above all, a sense of familiarity and nostalgia. Voices like Chaouali and Algeria’s Hafid Derradji followed people from their parents’ living rooms to their own living rooms.

“Chaouali’s voice represents the sound of World Cup summers for many of us,” El Kilani said. “It belongs to the heat, the whole family gathered in a room, a match being played while that sound does what it always does: transform an ordinary goal into something monumental.”