After a stupendous, magisterial, magical run, Ray Hudson is hanging up the microphone.
The venerable Hudson has been a one-of-a-kind presence in the soccer world for decades. He starred as a player in the glory days of the NASL with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers then became a coach in the early days of Major League Soccer.
But he left an indelible mark as a commentator as arguably the most unique and colorful analyst the world of soccer has ever known, and maybe even any sport in the known universe.
However, at the age of 70, Hudson has announced that he is stepping away from the broadcasting industry. In a post on X, the native Englishman said that he is retiring from both his CBS Sports commentating duties on the Champions League and his SiriusXM radio show.
Hudson elaborated on his retirement decision in an interview with Richard Deitsch at The Athletic. His last games called as an announcer will stand as the epic Champions League semifinal between Barcelona and Inter Milan, which saw the Italian side emerge triumphant 7-6 on aggregate in two of the most remarkable games the competition has ever seen.
It’s obviously a very difficult decision from Hudson, who chose to keep the exact reason for walking away private, but did say that it was to spend more time with his family.
“It is the most difficult decision I have ever had to make in my professional life,” Hudson said, his voice shaky. “This was really hard, and there are private reasons for it in some ways that I’d rather not talk about. Walking away from something that you love so much it’s heartbreaking. But I know this is the right thing for Joan (his wife) and I. The time to step away is now, but I will say I did change my mind so many times over the last few months.”
Hudson’s trademark style saw him able to reference almost anything and everything to describe the action on the pitch, with an ability to create a turn of phrase that would be impossible for mortal human beings. In particular, his love for Lionel Messi was the stuff of legend.
And as you would expect, Hudson was full of praise for the GOAT as he brought out the best in the commentator’s self-proclaimed “ridiculous type of verbose expressionism.”
“He was my absolute muse,” Hudson said of Messi. “There were so many other fabulous players in this time span, especially around the time when Spain won their World Cup and the Euros. Spain destroyed the world like a colossus then. Leo was just coming out of his egg shell, fluffing his football and feathers. [Pep] Guardiola’s Messi teams would show us things you’d see once in a 10-year period and it was every week. This was part of the whole challenge of trying to stretch the English language to describe the magic that you were seeing. I couldn’t do it with just “that was brilliant.” It just came out and people made the connection with me through this ridiculous type of verbose expressionism. Messi was just bewildering and you had to try to verbalize pure magic.”
There will simply never be another Ray Hudson. His commentary was a gift from the gods, a shooting star from the furthest reaches of the brightest galaxy, that was only meant to rest on planet earth for a short period of time so that we would not become too blinded by its transcendantal brilliance.
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