Испани болон Аргентины шигшээ багуудын хооронд болох 2026 оны Дэлхийн аваргын финалын тоглолтод Марк Фратто цэнгэлдэхийн тайлбарлагчаар ажиллахаар боллоо. Тэрээр өмнө нь Ист-Ратэрфордын “МетЛайф” цэнгэлдэхэд болсон Дэлхийн аваргын долоон тоглолтод дуу хоолойгоо хүргэсэн туршлагатай нэгэн юм.
Фраттогийн хувьд олон улсын хөлбөмбөгчдийн нэрийг алдаагүй, зөв дуудах нь хамгийн хариуцлагатай ажил бөгөөд үүний тулд маш нарийн бэлтгэл хийдэг байна. Тэрээр хөгжөөн дэмжигчдэд өөрийн орны цэнгэлдэхэд байгаа мэт мэдрэмжийг төрүүлэх, тоглогчдын мөрөөдлийг бодит болгоход өөрийн хувь нэмрээ оруулахыг эрмэлздэг. Дэлхийн аваргын тоглолтуудын үеэр тайлбарлагчид хөгжөөн дэмжигчдийн уур амьсгалыг алдагдуулахгүйн тулд аль болох бага ярих зарчмыг баримталдаг аж.
Түүний мэргэжлийн замнал нь бага насны сонирхлоос эхэлсэн бөгөөд өдгөө NFL-ийн Вашингтон Коммандерс, NBA-ийн Вашингтон Уизардс зэрэг олон томоохон багуудын тоглолтод ажиллаж байна. Хэдийгээр спортын томоохон үйл явдлуудад ажиллах нь өндөр дарамттай ч Фратто үүнийг өөрийн амьдралын хамгийн сайхан боломж хэмээн үздэг. Тэрээр 2023 онд Вашингтон Коммандерс багийн тоглолтын үеэр Дик Буткасын дурсгалыг хүндэтгэх хүндэтгэлийн мөчийг зохион байгуулахад мэргэжлийн өндөр ур чадвар гаргасныг багийн удирдлагууд онцолсон юм.
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Mark Fratto started his career as a public-address announcer speaking to small audiences.
As a first-grader, on the first Friday of every month, he performed readings during Catholic Mass services at St. Mary’s School in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. When he and one of his younger brothers, Timmy, played Wiffle ball in their backyard, pretending they were members of the New York Yankees, he did the introductions. And when his high-school classmates told him he wouldn’t make the varsity basketball team, he did the next best thing; he served as the announcer.
Countless paid gigs have followed in the three decades since. Fans of the NFL’s Washington Commanders, the NBA’s Washington Wizards and Major League Soccer’s New York City Football Club would recognize his distinctive voice.
On Sunday, he will work in front of the most global sports audience imaginable: the 2026 World Cup final between Spain and Argentinaat MetLife Stadium. Fratto, 49, has served as the public-address announcer for the previous seven World Cup games at the venue in East Rutherford, N.J.
It is the greatest honor of his working life, a job that requires extensive homework and rehearsals to ensure he pronounces all of the players’ names correctly.
“I get a little nervous before every game, and I think my nerves in this case are entirely related to the fact that I’m saying a lot of challenging international names,” Fratto says. “I want to do it with authenticity to make the fans of those teams feel welcomed and excited and give them the same kind of authentic experience that they have in their home stadiums, or in other places in the world.
“My goal is to make sure I’m putting in enough of the work and doing enough of the preparation to make sure I get everyone’s names right, because for a lot of players, this is their dream. For a lot of fans, attending these matches is their dream. And for everyone, this could be their first World Cup or it could be their last World Cup, and I’m part of the team that is charged with making it memorable for all those groups and all those people.”
You have heard Fratto speak if you’ve watched any of the previous World Cup games at MetLife Stadium, particularly the portions where players from both teams line up for their national anthems.
“At this time, we ask that you please rise, if you are able, for the national anthem of Brazil,” he said on June 13. Almost two minutes later, after Brazil’s national anthem ended, he said, “Please remain standing, if you are able, for the national anthem of Morocco.”
One of the directives for all public-address announcers at this World Cup, regardless of the location, has been to let the fans infuse the stadiums with energy with their cheering, their songs, their chants (and, at times, their whistling). That means the World Cup’s public-address announcers have spoken much less frequently than their counterparts in the NFL or in the NBA. The World Cup announcers get out of the way, so to speak, to make the fan experience as authentic as possible to the traditions in the teams’ home countries.
But when public-address announcers do speak, they must be as accurate as possible with their pronunciations. So it should be no surprise, then, that the audition process was strenuous. When he applied for the job, Fratto recalls, he had to submit a recording of his pronunciations of all players’ names on the projected rosters for Iran, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. Not an easy task for a native English speaker.
Those names were, for the most part, much more demanding than those he has pronounced when working as the public-address announcer at Commanders football games since 2023 at Northwest Stadium and Wizards basketball games since 2019 at Capital One Arena.
Fratto acknowledges he has a dream job, but it is not without its pressures or responsibilities. The NFL, for instance, requires its public-address announcers to finish speaking with at least 20 seconds remaining on the play clock before a visiting team is required to snap the ball.
Darius Smith, the Commanders’ senior director for game presentation and entertainment, described Fratto as a consummate professional. Fratto, for instance, will attend the early stages of the Commanders’ training camp to make certain he will accurately pronounce the names of all of the players on the Commanders’ preseason roster.
On Oct. 5, 2023, in just his third regular-season game as the Commanders’ public-address announcer, Smith and Fratto had to think, and work, fast. A few hours earlier, Chicago Bears Hall of Fame middle linebacker Dick Butkus died at 80 years old. Because the Commanders were hosting the Bears later that night, Smith, Fratto and their colleagues had to adjust the pregame script and pregame timing for a moment of silence in Butkus’ memory.
Making the work more complicated was that the game would be televised to a national audience, requiring the moment of silence to be coordinated with the broadcast network.
“He helped craft the script based off experience and adding in some language that he felt passionate about, which was agreed upon,” Smith says. “Just having that level of professionalism, but also caring about the moment, making sure that he was paying respect to the Butkus family… I noticed he was really prepared and able to handle it.”
Mark Fratto has worked as the Washington Wizards’ PA announcer since 2019 (Mark Fratto)
Fratto grew up in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., a city along the Hudson River about 80 miles north of midtown Manhattan.
He never dreamed that announcing sporting events would become part of his life’s work.
He played baseball and ran cross-country at Our Lady of Lourdes High School and wanted to try out for the boys’ basketball team as a junior, but his baseball teammates told him he wasn’t good enough to make the varsity. Instead, they encouraged him to work as the public-address announcer for the basketball games. At his friends’ urging, he mimicked the Chicago Bulls’ enthusiastic announcer, Ray Clay, whose pregame introductions had become famous because Michael Jordan had elevated the Bulls to repeated national television appearances.
When Clay would introduce Bulls players before tipoff, the arena’s sound system would play The Alan Parsons Project’s instrumental song “Sirius.”
That same song served as the music when 2026 World Cup teams walked onto the pitch before the national anthems early in the tournament.
Now a husband and father to two boys, Fratto — whose first syllable is pronounced as the first syllable in “fraternity” — has seen his career come full circle. He owns a company called Linacre Media, which does live sporting event production for broadcast and streaming platforms, voiceover work and media consulting work, and also includes his announcing work. His wife, Kristin, and sons, seven-year-old Jackson and five-year-old Mason, are supportive when he has to work nights or out-of-town gigs.
“I never forget how fortunate I am to have a job like this,” he says. “I have a company that provides for my family, and I’m in the toy aisle or the candy aisle of life, having a ridiculously good time every time I leave the house and go to work.
“Because of that, I feel obligated to do a great job for the people on my home teams, and for all of those who are coming out to watch their teams. For the World Cup, the gravity is there because the people care about their teams so much.”
