After months of rumors, Alexi Lalas has officially made the move from ESPN to Fox to join the network's soccer coverage.
The news was reported by Richard Deitsch, who spoke firsthand to Lalas, at SI.com early Tuesday, and shortly afterwards Fox confirmed that it has signed Lalas to join their soccer broadcast team.
Lalas will be working on Fox’s World Cup coverage, which includes the 2015 Women’s World Cup and 2018 men's World Cup, its upcoming MLS package and a number of other soccer properties like the UEFA Champions League, FA Cup and possibly the German Bundesliga (Fox owns the US rights to that competition starting in 2015-16).
If he ends up in the studio he will join Rob Stone, Eric Wynalda, Warren Barton and new addition Brad Friedel, who signed on last week. Lalas' contract with ESPN officially expires in December and viewers can expect to see him on Fox's FA Cup coverage in January.
“I wanted to be part of something and at a place I believed in. Just because someone is interested in you does not mean you belong there," Lalas told Deitsch. "Talking to the executives at Fox, there was a real desire to do something big and bold when it comes to soccer on television over the next eight years.”
