Maximiliano Bretos is an American

sports reporter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...

and

sports announcer In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

, who is currently the

play-by-play In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

announcer for MLS broadcasts on

Apple TV Apple TV is a digital media player and a microconsole developed and marketed by Apple. It is a small piece of networking hardware that sends received media data such as video and audio to a TV or external display. Its media services include ...

. He formerly hosted ''

ESPN Major League Soccer ''MLS on ESPN'' was the branding used for television presentations of Major League Soccer on ESPN properties, including ABC and ESPN2. Major League Soccer on ESPN debuted in 1996, the league's first season, and ended in 2022 when MLS and ESPN d ...

'' and ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

'' for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

as well as being the lead announcer for

Fox Soccer Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel & Fox Sports World before that) was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by 21st Century Fox, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian ...

from 2003–2010 and

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. It was establi ...

from 2018–2022. Bretos' broadcast specialization is

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Early years

Bretos attended the Judith Weston Acting Studio in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and formerly played for Santa Monica Rugby Club. Bretos earned a degree in international relations from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

in 1994. He also dabbled in modeling.

Broadcasting career

Bretos worked for Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Sports World (1997–2009) where he was the voice of the first English language, 24-hour international sports channel. While at Fox he also worked for Sky Sports in the United Kingdom (2003–2006) as well as the WWE Company in 2007. His broadcasting catchphrase was "Schelotto, yeah!" In January 2010, he resigned from FSC to take a position with

ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News," stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hear ...

Controversy

On February 18, 2012, Bretos used the term "

chink ''Chink'' is an English-language List of ethnic slurs, ethnic slur usually referring to a person of Chinese people, Chinese descent, but also used to insult people with East Asian features. The use of the term describing eyes with epicanthic ...

in the armor" in reference to

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...

point guard

Jeremy Lin Jeremy Shu-How Lin (born August 23, 1988) is a Taiwanese-American professional basketball player for the New Taipei Kings of the Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL). He unexpectedly led a winning turnaround with the New York Knick ...

, an Asian, while on air as an ESPNews anchor. He was suspended for 30 days. "My wife is Asian, so I’m basically a dork," apologized Bretos on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Spero Dedes Spero Dedes (; born February 27, 1979) is an American sportscaster. He is currently employed by CBS Sports, calling the NFL and college basketball games, and TNT Sports, calling NBA and college basketball games. He has previously worked as t ...

was another announcer who used that reference. Bretos, whose parents are both Cuban, has been at the forefront of advancing the Latino presence at ESPN. In Summer 2013, he interviewed Dodgers right fielder

Yasiel Puig Yasiel Puig Valdés ( , ; born December 7, 1990) is a Cuban-born American professional baseball right fielder who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, and Clevelan ...

in both

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

. In September 2013, he also co-hosted ESPN's Hispanic heritage special ''One Nacion''.

Los Angeles FC

In February 2018, Bretos was announced as the new lead play-by-play broadcaster on

YouTube TV YouTube TV is an American Pay television, subscription Over-the-top media service, over-the-top streaming television service operated by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, which in turn is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., who announced YouTube TV ...

for

Los Angeles Football Club Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) is an American professional soccer club based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. It was established on October 30, 2014, and began play in the ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

. He continued his anchoring duties on ''

'' at ESPN's Los Angeles studios until late 2018.

Podcast

From February 2017 until early 2019, Max co-hosted the ''Max and Herc'' podcast with

Herculez Gomez Herculez Gomez (born April 6, 1982) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He currently works as a commentator in both English and Spanish for ESPN. Early ...

. The podcast was a professionally produced cast on the topic of soccer, and was part of the ESPN family of podcasts. Bretos announced through a tweet that the podcast had come to an end in early 2019, to focus on his responsibilities with LAFC. Starting in early 2021, Max announced his new podcast project, ''The Soccer OG'', interviewing other figures in the soccer landscape and offering his perspective on developments in the USMNT, MLS and other parts of global football. As of December 2022, the podcast has over 130 episodes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bretos, Max Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) American television sports announcers American soccer commentators American people of Cuban descent Major League Soccer broadcasters Florida State University alumni ESPN people