DOHA, Qatar — Tom Gelehrter got a call he wasn’t expecting in April. It was a college friend asking if he had any interest in doing stats and research for a broadcasting crew.
That call would later provide Gelehrter a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity.
The FC Cincinnati play-by-play announcer for both TV and radio broadcasts said he then had a formal interview with FOX describing their needs. Seven months later, Gelehrter is more than 7,000 miles away at the World Cup.
What does his job entail? A lot of homework, and staying ahead of the matches. He said one of the challenging aspects of the tournament is the pace at which the initial round-robin games are being played.
“Most of the work is done in the lead-up to the game,” he said. “We have Portugal-Ghana tomorrow, then we see Netherlands-Ecuador on Friday. Off Saturday. Then on Sunday, we have Brazil and Switzerland. I’m already working on Brazil and Switzerland to get information ready for that match.”
He relays statistics and key information that could be valuable to announcer Derek Rae.
“(Tuesday) was an off day, but I wasn’t at the beach hanging out,” Gelehrter said. “I spent six hours hanging out at the national broadcast center. Sat there, and did work. Got ahead, and did research for the guys.”
Gelehrter said the opportunity to work with someone like Rae, with decades of experience, is priceless.
“He’s been at every World Cup since 1990. There’s a reason for that,“ he said. “His experience speaks for itself. He’s the voice of FIFA the video game. My kids think it’s the greatest thing that I’m literally sitting next to the guy who is the voice of FIFA. They’re more tickled by that than the fact that I’m at the World Cup.”
As for the broadcast crew’s setup, Gelehrter said it’s a bit different than what he’s used to for home matches at TQL Stadium for FC Cincinnati.
“What’s unique is that I’m used to calling a game in a gigantic beautiful broadcast booth. There’s no one else in there. The space I have in TQL stadium, they’d have four broadcast teams in there — if not five. French TV on one side of us, Dutch TV on the other side of us, English TV in front of us,” Gelehrter said. “You hear everything. You hear all these languages. It’s the world. There’s 25-30 different languages calling the same match simultaneously. It brings everyone together.”
Gelehrter said the weeks-long trip to Qatar will be the longest he’s ever been away from his family.
“Just miss my family tons,” said Gelehrter. “Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home. They know I’m thinking about them. Trying to talk about them as much as possible. It’s hard.”
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