The staff of Mother Jones is, once again, rounding up the heroes and monsters of the past year. This is a non-exhaustive and totally subjective list, giving our reporters a chance to write about something that brought joy, discontent, or curiosity. Happy holidays.
Viewers tuning in to Fox Sports to watch this summer’s North America–hosted World Cup will find themselves hearing from one the sport’s loudest and arguably most disliked voices: Alexi Lalas.
The soccer commentator and former US men’s national team player’s public persona centers on grandstanding nationalism, dumbed-down analysis, and incessantly controversial takes to generate buzz—an “edgelord,” per Politico’s apt description. For any NBA fan, Lalas is the annoying, redheaded younger brother of Stephen A. Smith. Both spray audiences with hot takes and relish the hate they get in return. It’s not creating division for rivalry or sport, it’s creating division for attention. It’s why a simple “Alexi Lalas is bad for US soccer” T-shirt had a viral moment earlier this year, designed in response to his contention that “diversity” has hurt the US men’s soccer team. (The claim was met by Eric Wynalda, another national team legend turned pundit, pointing out Lalas’ own background: His father is an immigrant from Greece, and his legal first name is Panayotis.)
For years, many, many, many writers have argued that Lalas has dumbed down public understanding of the sport and harmed its growth in the US, calling him “villainous and ultimately untrustworthy,” “the lowest common denominator,” and “a man who would power rank his own farts, if given the opportunity.” As a Guardian op-ed put it, “There can be no real improvement in the coverage of soccer in this country as long as [Alexi Lalas] continues to have a job.”
The future of the sport in this country and his own career prospects are intertwined.
Since that article ran in 2024, not only has Lalas continued to hold his job at Fox, but he even picked up a new gig helping advise President Donald Trump’s White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026. The role makes sense: He hasn’t exactly been shy about signaling his MAGA beliefs and how they set him apart. “I live in California, I work in soccer, I’m like a unicorn when it comes to politics,” he told Fox News in a radio interview while attending the 2024 Republican National Convention. (“A cool place to be,” he’s said.) Beyond attacking diversity in soccer, he’s lifted up anti-trans rhetoric around sports by advertising Clay Travis’ book Balls: How Trump, Young Men, and Sports Saved America and propped up Trump as the “soccer president” ahead of the first World Cup to be played in the US since 1994.
Despite this blatantly political rhetoric, Lalas criticizes the same behavior in others, most notably targeting the women’s national team—saying the players’ advocacy made the squad “unlikeable” after the four-time world champions were knocked out of the 2023 World Cup in early rounds. Former US women’s captain and Olympic gold medalist Megan Rapinoe, an advocate for LGBTQ rights and social justice issues, responded to Lalas’ comment in an Atlantic interview.
“One thing that America does really well is backlash. I think there’s a huge backlash against women happening right now. I think we see that with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We’re seeing that with the trans argument in sports. Does Alexi know exactly what he’s saying? If I was saying stuff that anchors on Fox News are also saying,” she explained, “I would be worried about the co-sign.”
This wasn’t the first time Lalas publicly went after female players from the US. In 2020, Lalas tweeted about National Women’s Soccer League professionals who took a knee in protest of police brutality, claiming that it “takes courage to actually stand for the national anthem.” He later apologize for the “hurt” that tweet caused, but even in a 2023 post celebrating Rapinoe’s career and retirement, Lalas couldn’t keep from mentioning that he disagrees with her “on many things.”
Despite all this, Lalas may prove to be useful as the world’s game is forced to navigate the rubble dome of the White House. He confided in Politico that he told Trump, “This is on our watch, and so let’s not fuck it up.” He’s even raised concern about how news of ICE raids will deter people from coming to the cup—though his preference is not changing policy, but fighting the “perception out there that people have that it’s not going to be a welcoming environment.” For foreign fans considering visiting the US for the tournament, Lalas has said that if “you pass the vetting process, you are going to have a wonderful time.”
Of course, Lalas wants the 2026 World Cup to be a success, seeing as his bosses at the Murdoch-controlled Fox Sports shelled out some $400 million to secure airing rights for nearly 70 percent of the games, and given that the future of the sport in this country and his own career prospects are intertwined. But to those who see his voice as harmful to the game, the dynamic sets him up as US soccer’s parasite—he depends on its success to create his own, while being a force that stunts its growth.
The power, the politics, and the media might of Fox have set the stage for Lalas to emerge from the 2026 World Cup with more prominence than he went in. He’s laid the groundwork. He has his podcast. He has his own original patriotic music. He’s spoken about more formally carving out a profile in political commentary, as long as someone will “pay me to talk.” He just needs the ball to bounce his way.
