Kate Abdo (; born 8 September 1981,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) is an English

sports broadcaster In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio w ...

who currently hosts

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

coverage for

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...

and Fox Sports'

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

Tonight. Throughout her career she has worked internationally in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany and the United States.

Career

Abdo's broadcasting career started at the German international news network Deutsche Welle in 2005, in which she completed an internship in the foreign language department. In 2006–07, she worked as a production assistant for ''Goal! The Bundesliga Magazine'', and at the same time was sports news presenter at Deutsche Welle until 2009, where she hosted sports coverage for their English and German-language services. From there she moved to

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, where she anchored the "World Sports" program daily. She also hosted the "Inside Africa" feature show. Abdo left CNN to join Sky Sport News HD in Germany, where she was head anchor and the face of the network. Abdo joined to be a public face for the launch of the network and was also heavily involved in the development of the network's coverage, formats and programming. From Germany, Abdo moved to the UK to join

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

, where she hosted the Pay Per View Boxing events, European Football, Transfer Deadline day and Sky Sports News. Sky Sports loaned Abdo to

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

to host their coverage of the Women's World Cup in 2015, and Abdo later took up a permanent offer from the network to relocate to the US and host their Champions League, Europa League, World Cup, FA Cup, and Bundesliga coverage. On three occasions (2010, 2011 and 2013), she acted as presenter for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

group stage draw in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. Since being at Fox, she has also now taken on the role of hosting Fox's Premier Boxing Champions, including a regular studio show "Inside PBC Boxing" and fight night coverage. After Fox lost the rights to Champions League to

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for turni ...

, Abdo also signed a deal to host Champions League coverage on

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

from Turner's Atlanta studios. Abdo is also well known for her role hosting the

FIFA Ballon d'Or The FIFA Ballon d'Or ("Golden Ball") was an annual association football award presented to the world's best men's player from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and ''France Football'', the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Ye ...

and

Laureus World Sports Awards The Laureus World Sports Awards is an annual award ceremony honouring individuals and teams from the world of sports along with sporting achievements throughout the year. It was established in 1999 by Laureus Sport for Good Foundation foundin ...

, both of which she hosted on numerous occasions. At the

2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or The 2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala was the fifth year for FIFA's awards for the top football players and coaches of the year. The awards were given out in Zürich on 12 January 2015. Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo won the FIFA Bal ...

ceremony she spoke with contestants and guests in four languages. She was also a host for the

2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or The 2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala was the sixth year for FIFA's awards for the top football players and coaches of the year. The awards were given out in Zürich, Switzerland on 11 January 2016. Lionel Messi won the award as the World Player of the ...

. After losing major soccer rights and the cancellation of ‘’Inside PBC’’, Abdo left Fox Sports. However, she has returned to Fox to host their nightly FIFA World Cup show in

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

. In 2020, Abdo returned to the UK to work for

as the host of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League. Abdo still works in the US for

DAZN DAZN ( "da zone") is a global sports entertainment platform. Different to traditional linear and satellite broadcasting, DAZN is an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service meaning that it is delivered directly to viewers via the internet. The ...

's boxing coverage.

Personal life

Born in

, she studied at Christ the King School, Manchester, and

Withington Girls' School Withington Girls' School is an independent day school in Fallowfield, Manchester, United Kingdom, providing education for girls between the ages of seven and eighteen. Withington is a member of the Girls' Schools Association and the Headmasters ...

. She moved to Spain at the age of 17, learned Spanish, and took her high school diploma. A year later, she began a degree at the

University of Málaga The University of Málaga (UMA, ''Universidad de Málaga'') is a public university ranked 23 among all Spanish universities and 683 in the world. It was established in 1972 and has, as of 2016, 30,203 Bachelor students and 2576 on a Master's pr ...

in 2003 where she studied "Translation and Interpreting." Abdo also took time out of her studies to live in France and Germany. She also graduated from the

University of Salford , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

with a first-class B.A. (Hons) in European Languages. Having lived in Spain, France and Germany, Abdo is fluent in all three languages. She married Ramtin Abdo (Abdolmajid), a German businessman and investor, in 2010. She is of Guyanese descent through her maternal grandmother. She is a Manchester United fan.

References

External links

CNN ProfileFox Sports Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdo, Kate British women journalists 1981 births Living people CNN people British sports journalists University of Málaga alumni Alumni of the University of Salford Journalists from Manchester Women sports journalists Fox Sports 1 people English people of Guyanese descent 21st-century British journalists