Chad Johnson has claimed he’ll bring in a whole new audience to the sport of soccer when he makes his debut as a TV analyst at World Cup 2022.
Fox announced this week that the former NFL star will serve as an analyst on the network’s “FIFA World Cup Tonight” show during the tournament.
The move drew some criticism due to Johnson’s lack of background in the game, with Fox’s announcement describing him as a “soccer aficionado.”
Johnson’s Fox colleague and former USMNT star Alexi Lalas had the ex-wide receiver on his “State of the Union” podcast, and Johnson sounded bullish on his ability to analyze soccer despite his background as a football player.
“What I’m going to give is information that no one knew I even had,” Johnson said. “I’m going to talk about the game of soccer [in a way] that people who don’t follow me didn’t know I knew about.”
The man formerly known as Chad Ochocinco added that he believes he can attract a new demographic to the game in a way that an analyst with a soccer-only background could not.
“I think I’m going to have a different demographic of people watching the game of soccer that have never watched before,” he added. “We’re going to have a large following in general, and I’m going to get them interested in a game that many of my friends and people who are in the States don’t respect.
“I want them to understand that this is a great game, and it’s called the beautiful game for a reason.”
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