Rebecca Lowe: Covering the World Cup is the pinnacle of my career

 Rebecca Lowe feared the worst. Halfway through NBC's regular Premier League program in April 2025, she felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Sam Flood, president of NBC Sports production. - He asked: "Do you have a minute?" I thought, "It's never a good sign when your boss asks for a moment." When Lowe received the news, her analysts Gary Neville and Robbie Mustoe, both former Premier League players, watched with concern. - We got a call from Fox, from Brad Zager (President and Executive Producer of Fox Sports), and they asked for you to host the World Series. We agreed to it, but don't tell anyone. He smiles, remembering that day 14 months ago. -Five minutes later, I snuck out, called my husband (former player and manager Paul Buckle) and had a moment in the NBC bathroom. I interviewed Fox the following week. It is not common in American television for hosts to be able to divide their duties between rival stations. However, in Lowe's case, NBC agreed to such an exception. Over the past 13 years, Lowe has become a trusted voice and authority in NBC's Premier League coverage, but she is also known to the wider public, having hosted seven Olympic Games and multiple Duchess Cup races. However, this is her first FIFA World Cup as a host, and she joined Fox for a short period to spearhead their coverage alongside experts such as Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexi Lalas. This lineup attracted attention even before the tournament started and was controversial in the opening days of the championship, especially the dynamic between Ibrahimovic and Lalas. The exchange that went viral took place when Ibrahimovic criticized Lalas for labeling France's first-half performance against Senegal as "arrogant". - This is not arrogance, said Ibrahimovic. - This is self-confidence. Stupid people will say it's arrogance. Smart people will say it's self-confidence. Lowe says the quartet first met in March of this year for a photo shoot for Fox, but they didn't rehearse for the first time in front of the cameras until the days before the tournament started. - Thierry is a very thoughtful and generous man, says Lowe. - I was surprised that he remembered that I was a Crystal Palace supporter and congratulated me when my team recently won the European Cup. She had previous experience working with Lalas Lowe, they both worked for ESPN during Euro 2012. - I haven't seen him since 2012, so it was nice to see him again - she says. - I know how he works and he's hilarious. However, Lowe has never met Ibrahimovic before. “For me, he was exactly what I thought he would be,” she says. - You think to yourself: "Isn't this just an image? How long will he keep it up?" He never once stepped down from that level with me. - It didn't come off at all, even with makeup on. They won't go anywhere from this, so this is his true face. Who of the three is the most unpredictable? “Zlatan would probably want me to say it was Zlatan,” Lowe replied. - And he's right. Sometimes he has a lot to say. Other times he says very little. But there is a lot of it in this little thing he says. -Thierry is very intellectual. I'm shocked at how thoughtful his personality is. -And Alexi, you know what to expect from him - he's intense and passionate. - But it's refreshing for me because he talks about something different every time. Long and demanding working hours during a tournament can sometimes make the host feel fed up. "But no, I don't," Lowe replied. - I love what I do. - This is a challenge for me. - At NBC, I had very long-term, stable studio collaborators, and here they are completely new people to me. - And it forces me to learn, and I want to learn. I believe that my role is to hold the viewer's hand and guide them through the tournament, step by step. - I realize that the World Championships are a different audience. - It will be divided into mega football freaks, sports fans who don't watch it every day, and total novices who, for example, are at a friend's house and the match is on. - And I must inform these newbies, but not in a way that will discourage them. Lowe is preparing for the tournament in a similar way to preparing for the Olympics. - It's like preparing for the Olympics, because in Olympic sports there are disciplines that the viewers don't necessarily know and I have to present it to them in an accessible way. - I need to know the biggest names to sell stars. - For each team, I have such extensive reports, which include key stories, the coach, the greatest players, how the team qualified for the tournament. - For example, when I was preparing my first text for the match against Paraguay, in which the Americans played, I thought about the parents I meet at school in California, when I drop off and pick up my ten-year-old son, Teddy. - They may think: "We like football, but we don't really watch it much, but we will watch it for the World Cup." - I wanted them to feel included in a sport that may have never included them before. The opening match of the World Championship was an extraordinary experience for Lowe. “It wasn't just another sporting event I was involved in, it was something I will remember for the rest of my life,” she said. - There was something in the air that day. - Everyone was so happy from the first day, and when the team played well, it was the best day of my life. “I've seen a lot in this industry - cup finals, big Premier League games - but I've never seen anything like this. - I went to bed that night with a feeling I had never experienced before - the adrenaline was so high and at the same time I was so tired that I couldn't sleep. Lowe's love of football began when she was nine years old and her dad (Chris), then a BBC news presenter, took her to a Crystal Palace match. The first World Championship she remembers was Italia '90. - I'm 99% sure I remember Gazza's (Paul Gascoigne) tears at that fateful moment, and of course Pavarotti. - This song (Nessun dorma, which became the tournament's anthem) evokes only emotions in me because it was the year I fell in love with football. Lowe admitted that working long hours during the tournament is tiring. - There are four matches a day in the group stage, and I have to be in the studio for three matches, so it's about 13 hours if we add the time to prepare and finish the program, and make-up. - During the tournament, I also write a diary, as I wroteevery day when I was between the ages of 11 and 28. - Before going to bed, I try to read something non-fiction, even if I manage to read one page before falling asleep. On Thursday, I had my first day off during the tournament and I went for intravenous vitamin therapy, a kind of "loading" with vitamins, minerals and everything that has a good effect on the body. “I've become very Californian in that sense,” she said with a smile. Lowe is a remarkable British export in many ways. In the UK she was an established journalist, working at the BBC and then becoming the first woman to host an FA Cup final on British television when she hosted it on ESPN in 2012. However, in 2013, when NBC acquired the rights to the Premier League, Lowe and her husband fully devoted themselves to life in the United States. "I'm happy to be married to someone who understands what my job is," Lowe says. - He understands how much value it has. When you came to the United States 13 years ago, could you have imagined that you would be covering the World Cup in this country? - If you told me this 13 years ago, I would be very surprised - said Lowe, visibly moved. - Leaving England was a very difficult decision. - I had 10 years of experience in the industry and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue working in it. - In England it was very difficult for me as a woman in this industry. - Moving to the US was a huge decision, not only to stay in the industry, but also because my husband (then Paul Buckle, manager of Luton Town) resigned from his job and it was he who decided that we would move to the US. - We were trying to start a life together, he had two children who were teenagers, and emigration is always a difficult decision. - We took basically everything we had, including our cat, by ship to America. - It was a huge decision, so I didn't want someone from some industry to just notice me and disappear. - I was afraid that this might be a temporary decision. - That's why, when I started working in America 13 years ago, I was convinced that something would happen. обращать внимание and и не собираюсь исчезать из этой industry.