Jozy Altidore Elected to National Soccer Hall of Fame
The two-time World Cup veteran scored 42 goals for the U.S. men and delivered the winning goal in Toronto FC’s 2017 MLS Cup victory.
The New York Red Bulls desperately needed a win to help their chances of reaching the 2006 MLS Cup playoffs. When forward John Wolyniec suffered a bloodied eye in the 71st minute of the Sept. 16 match against Columbus, coach Bruce Arena turned to a 16-year-old with nine minutes of Major League Soccer experience.
Just minutes after coming on, Jozy Altidore struck from 28 yards to give the Red Bulls a 1–0 victory.
“I don’t know how to explain it, man,” Altidore told the New York Daily News. “You sit on the bench, and you pray for that one chance to get in. But you never think you’ll score the game-winning goal in a match like this.
“I was like, ‘Did that just go in?’ I thought I was daydreaming for a second. I heard the crowd with the goal, and I was like, ‘Oh shoot, that was me.’”
His coach was impressed.
“It was quite a goal,” Arena told the newspaper. “That young man has potential.”
That turned out to be quite an understatement. Altidore went on to score 42 goals in 115 appearances for the U.S. Men’s National Team. His 42 goals rank third in team history. He made two World Cup squads and scored the opening goal in a 2–0 upset of Spain in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup semifinals.
In 2017, he helped the U.S. win the Concacaf Gold Cup and led Toronto FC to the Supporters’ Shield and the MLS Cup, scoring the winning goal in the final.
Altidore was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He will be inducted April 16, 2027, in Frisco, Texas.
Born in New Jersey on Nov. 6, 1989, Josmer Volmy Altidore was the youngest of four children. His parents had immigrated from Haiti, and the family moved to South Florida when he was young.
His father, Joseph, started kicking a ball with him when he was 3, and by the time Altidore started playing organized soccer at 5, his shot was hard enough to worry other parents.
“He kicked it very hard,” his mother, Giselle, told BigAppleSoccer.com. “They wanted to get the kids away from his shots.”
In 1998, Josef Schulz and his wife were walking through a Boca Raton park when they noticed an 8-year-old in a pickup game. Schulz, who ran a soccer academy, asked to meet the boy’s father.
“I said to the father of Josmer, ‘Don’t laugh at me. I think your son has all of the ingredients to become a national team player,’” Schulz told BigAppleSoccer.com in 2008.
Altidore joined the Schulz Soccer Academy and also played for Boca Raton Juniors and Sunrise SC. The MetroStars, who became the New York Red Bulls later that year, selected him 17th overall in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft.
“Altidore is something special,” coach Mo Johnston told the Newark Star-Ledger. “He’s like a kid of 21. He’s very confident. … He wanted to come to the MetroStars. He was pleading for us to pick him.”
Once he finished his time at the U.S. Under-17 residency camp, he joined the MLS side, scoring three goals in seven regular-season appearances as a rookie and adding the Red Bulls’ only playoff goal. U.S. Soccer named him its 2006 Young Male Player of the Year.
At the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, Altidore scored four goals as the U.S. reached the quarterfinals. He made his senior international debut that November, a little over a week after he turned 18, in a 1–0 friendly win over South Africa. In February 2008, he headed in a cross from Drew Moor for his first senior international goal in a 2–2 draw with Mexico in Houston.
At 6-foot-1, Altidore combined speed and strength with the ability to score from distance.
“He’s shown he can contribute in different ways — from inside and outside the box,” former U.S. under-20 coach Thomas Rongen said. “That’s hard to come by.”
Altidore joined Villarreal in 2008 for a reported transfer fee of $10 million and spent time on loan at Xerez in Spain, Hull City in England and Bursaspor in Turkey. His most productive European seasons came with AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands. He scored 51 goals in all competitions, including the winner in the 2013 Dutch Cup final, before moving to Sunderland.
In 2015, Altidore returned to MLS with Toronto FC. Captain Michael Bradley wanted him there badly enough to restructure his own contract to help make the move possible.
“At the end of the day, for me, it was all about making sure that Jozy is here with us,” Bradley told The Sporting News.
Toronto reached three MLS Cup finals during Altidore’s seven seasons with the club. In 2017, he scored 15 regular-season goals as Toronto won the Supporters’ Shield. The club also won the Canadian Championship and went into the playoffs with a chance to complete the treble.
Playing with a sore right ankle, Altidore scored the only goal in the second leg of the Eastern Conference final against Columbus. Toronto advanced 1–0 on aggregate.
“Jozy is a guy who, in the biggest moments, you want next to you,” Bradley said. “We needed him tonight … he found a way to make a difference.”
In a rematch with the Seattle Sounders in the MLS Cup final, Altidore scored the first goal in a 2–0 victory and was named MLS Cup MVP.
For Altidore, part of the joy of scoring at BMO Field was watching the supporters react.
“I love watching the goals and the celebrations because of the supporters,” Altidore said. “What it means to them. It’s chaos. The way they celebrate our goals, it’s like they’re living and dying with us.”
Altidore stayed with Toronto through the 2021 season before joining the New England Revolution in 2022. He spent part of that year on loan at Puebla in Mexico and finished his playing career in 2023.
Throughout his career, Altidore used his platform to draw attention to causes that mattered to him. When an earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, he encouraged donations to help with relief efforts.
“Haiti has always held a very special place in my heart because my parents immigrated from Haiti to the United States, which gave me the opportunity to become the person I am today,” he told Urban Pitch. “Supporting Haiti has therefore always been incredibly important to me.”
In December 2012, while playing for AZ, he wore boots bearing the names of the 26 people killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. In 2019, he co-founded Footy Market, a marketplace for players and coaches to buy, sell or donate their equipment to help individuals at all income levels play the sport.
After his playing career, Altidore became a limited partner in the Buffalo Bills in 2024. He returned to the World Cup in a different role in 2026, working as an analyst for Telemundo.