1. Shep Norman Messing was born on October 9,1949 and is a retired American soccer goalkeeper and current broadcaster who works as a studio analyst for the MLS Season Pass team.
27 Facts About Shep Messing
1. 2.
Shep Messing played seven seasons in the North American Soccer League and six in the Major Indoor Soccer League.
3.
Shep Messing was a member of the United States national team at the 1971 Pan American Games and 1972 Summer Olympics.
4.
Shep Messing previously worked for MSG Network in its coverage of the New York Red Bulls.
5.
Shep Messing's mother, the daughter of a Russian furniture maker and his Latvian wife, taught physical education at Nassau Community College, his father was a lawyer who worked in Manhattan, and his paternal grandfather was from Riga, Latvia.
6.
Shep Messing attended Wheatley High School, where he started playing soccer.
7.
Shep Messing graduated from Harvard University in 1972 after playing on the school's men's soccer team.
8.
Shep Messing joined the US national team that played in the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia.
9.
Shep Messing went on to play with the US team at 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
10.
Shep Messing was protected along with 12 other Jewish members of the US Olympic delegation.
11.
Shep Messing made his debut with the Cosmos in a May 20,1974 exhibition game with Irish club Finn Harps.
12.
Shep Messing attracted attention by posing in the nude for a photo spread in the December 1974 issue of Viva magazine, for which he was paid $5,000.
13.
Shep Messing joked that these photos gave the New York Cosmos more "exposure" than they'd ever received from the media up to that time.
14.
Shep Messing moved to the Boston Minutemen for a season and a half and led the league in goalkeeping with a 1.24 GAA.
15.
Shep Messing then played the 1977 season with the Cosmos before moving to the Oakland Stompers.
16.
The Stompers lasted only a single season, following which Shep Messing moved to the Rochester Lancers.
17.
Shep Messing became the league's dominant keeper, being named to the MISL All Star team in 1979,1980 and 1981.
18.
Shep Messing began as an analyst for the Major Indoor Soccer League games on ESPN.
19.
Shep Messing has been the main analyst for the MetroStars and the re-branded New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer, working both on radio and television since 2001.
20.
Shep Messing served as a color commentator for ESPN Radio covering the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
21.
Shep Messing is a member of the New York Sports Hall of Fame and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and the author of a book on soccer, while appearing in several films on the sport.
22.
Shep Messing has been the color analyst for Madison Square Garden for twelve years broadcasting the New York Red Bulls games in Major League Soccer.
23.
Shep Messing has been the color analyst for the 2002,2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups for ESPN.
24.
Shep Messing served as an analyst for NBC Sports coverage of soccer at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.
25.
In 2023, Shep Messing was named a studio analyst for the MLS Season Pass coverage team as all MLS coverage moved to a streaming service.
26.
Shep Messing wrote an autobiography entitled The Education of an American Soccer Player which was published in hardcover in 1978 by Dodd, Mead and in paperback in 1979 by Bantam Books.
27.
Shep Messing appeared nude as a centerfold in a 1974 issue of Viva magazine.