Zlatan Ibrahimović joined Fox’s World Cup studio show and immediately became part of the show’s biggest problem: an awkward dynamic with Alexi Lalas. From a lie-detector joke to clashing on-air styles—plus Lalas’s “Power Rankings” segment—Fox’s gamble is being
One of the first things Fox tried with its World Cup desk was a headline-grabbing wink. On Fox’s late-night World Cup show, “After Hours with James Corden,” Corden hooked Zlatan Ibrahimović up to a lie detector for a skit.
Corden read the cue cards: “You share a desk with fellow Fox analysts Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry and Alexi Lalas. Do you think a panel of four Zlatans would be better than these four?”
Zlatan leaned into his “I am the most confident man in the world” schtick and said yes. The lie detector monitor said he was telling the truth.
But the show’s own audience has been voting with its attention, and the practical answer—so far in this World Cup—has been less Zlatan and less Lalas, with Fox’s main studio show feeling better when the tension between them fades.
The awkwardness has a pattern. It’s there in how Zlatan comes across when he’s not working in his native language, and it’s there in how Lalas performs his “Hot Take” persona. The contrast shows up most clearly when the desk gets specific.
During Wednesday’s pregame, Henry didn’t just deliver a vibe. He broke down France star Kylian Mbappé’s first goal against Senegal. describing the nuances of the diagonal run in the box. Later in the same run of analysis. Henry turned to Portugal’s 1-1 tie against DR Congo and explained the selfishness of Cristiano Ronaldo’s movement—specifically. that he did not open space for a teammate.
“The team needs to score, not you need to score,” Henry said.
The breakdowns were elegant and illuminating, the kind of football detail that makes a studio segment feel like it’s doing more than filling time.
That’s the real tension around Fox’s revamp. Going into this World Cup. Fox set out to create a premier studio show with Hall of Fame star power similar to its NFL and MLB pregames. which feature Michael Strahan. Terry Bradshaw. Derek Jeter and David Ortiz. Fox brought in proven TV winners: Rebecca Lowe. who leads NBC’s Premier League studio show. and Thierry Henry. who is part of CBS’s Champions League presentation. It was an audacious swing.
Lowe and Henry came with a track record. Zlatan came with a gamble.
Fox brought in Zlatan as a signing that carried a question mark: would he be any good at studio analysis? The clock is ticking. The World Cup final is already only a month away on July 19.
So far. the issue for Zlatan is that he does not appear to know much too specific about many teams or players. When Fox leaned into the storyline about American turned Canada coach Jesse Marsch before his first game last week. it sounded as if Zlatan had never heard of him. By the time the segments were done, Zlatan said he wanted to meet the confident Canadian coach.
In Fox’s current setup. the cocky crutch is Zlatan’s one big move. making him feel like a striker who can use only one foot—effective in flashes. limiting when the play needs variety. What Fox “needs to really do. ” in this moment. is use its field studio to pull out Zlatan’s goal-scoring insight—so he can show techniques and tactics and demonstrate what made him such a relentless finisher. Fox’s best chance is to get him talking in the language of instincts and methods, not just confidence.
Then there’s Lalas—an American holdover from Fox’s 2022 studio show, the one that required the revamping in the first place.
Lalas’s tone is part of why the desk feels out of sync. He’s been framed in the piece as one of the most insufferable analysts in American TV sports history, and it points to his performance style as something that doesn’t match the credentials of either Zlatan or Henry.
The clearest example came in Wednesday’s pregame, when Fox gave viewers “Alexi’s Power Rankings.” Lalas declared, “Reminder, these are my Power Rankings. If you don’t like them, get your own Power Rankings.”
The segment’s premise landed like an unnecessary detour. This is not “First Take,” the criticism goes—so what viewers got felt less like football instruction and more like a recurring bit with the same volume.
Still, the desk isn’t only clashing in content. It has started to clash in moments.
After the Corden segment was shown on the pregame, Zlatan had a line that seemed to fit the best version of the desk—one that could lean into play rather than friction. He said Lowe’s and Henry’s attires were well put together and, turning to Lalas, added, “We can discuss.”
Lalas put out his hands and had a little smile, but didn’t seem to enjoy it. Zlatan followed with, “It’s all love. It’s all love.”
They may be laughing, the argument goes, but it’s not clear it’s truly a shared joke. Lalas started the back-and-forth early in the coverage when he said 25-year-old Norwegian Erling Haaland will surpass Zlatan’s career status with a strong World Cup. Zlatan did not appreciate it and has had his retorts.
One of those retorts arrived Tuesday, when France’s lackadaisical first half inspired game analyst Landon Donovan and Lalas to bring up the word “arrogance” in regard to the French opening 45 minutes. Zlatan cut through with what the piece calls his best moment of the tournament so far.
“It’s not arrogance,” Zlatan said. “It’s confidence. Ignorant people will say it’s arrogance. Intelligent people will say it is confidence.”
Maybe it’s the simplest truth on the desk: confidence can look like arrogance, depending on who’s delivering it—and how.
So the question for Fox now isn’t whether Zlatan can command attention. He can. The question is whether Fox can shape what that attention produces.
The editorial push in the reporting is clear through the ordering of the facts: Henry and Lowe’s work has been the clearest football education on the set. and the desk looks strongest when it leans into that kind of precision. The problem is that Fox’s studio—built to feel like a premier pregames platform—keeps getting pulled toward the very personalities it added to increase star power.
If Fox wants this desk to feel like a match-winning strategy rather than a weekly skit, it has to bring Zlatan and Lalas to the level set by Lowe and Henry. Otherwise, the World Cup final on July 19 is going to arrive with the same awkward energy already logged—just with less time left to fix it.
Fox World Cup Zlatan Ibrahimović Alexi Lalas Rebecca Lowe Thierry Henry James Corden lie detector Mbappé Senegal Cristiano Ronaldo DR Congo Jesse Marsch July 19
Why is Zlatan even on that show lol
That lie detector joke sounds kinda forced. Like who asked for that?? And if the audience is voting, they probably hate it more than they’re admitting.
Wait so Lalas and Zlatan got into it because of a “power rankings” thing? I thought power rankings were like… just numbers, not drama. Maybe Fox just wanted clicks with Zlatan’s name and figured the rest would figure itself out.
I didn’t even know Fox had a World Cup desk tbh, I just caught clips. The whole “awkward dynamic” part feels like they’re pushing personalities instead of actually talking soccer. Also James Corden putting someone on a lie detector feels weird to me, like is that even real or just TV magic? If the tension fades then maybe the show should… not have both of them, idk.