Shep Messing (born October 9, 1949 in The Bronx, New York) is a former American soccer goalkeeper and current broadcaster. He played seven seasons in the North American Soccer League and six in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He was also a member of the U.S. soccer team at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
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Messing, along with his brother Roy, attended high school at The Wheatley School in Old Westbury, New York. Shep is uncle to Wooster School standout player Jamie Messing. He began his collegiate soccer career at New York University. He graduated from Harvard University in 1973 after playing on the school's men's soccer team. He was a two-time second team All-American.
He joined the U.S. national team that played in the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia. He went on to play with the U.S. team at 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The U.S. went 0-2-1 in group play and failed to qualify for the second round. Messing manned the net in the U.S.'s third game of the games, a 7-0 loss to West Germany. After the Olympics, Messing received offers from teams in Mexico and Germany, but was invited to play for the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League (NASL), where his teammates would eventually include Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia.
He made his debut with the Cosmos in a May 20, 1974 exhibition game with Irish club Finn Harps. He would remain a backup for most of his career with the Cosmos. In 1973 and 1974, Jerry Sularz held the starting job.
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. He joked that these photos gave the New York Cosmos more "exposure" than they'd ever received from the media up to that time. The Cosmos management was not pleased, and cut Messing from the team on the grounds that he had violated a morals clause in his contract.
He moved to the Boston Minutemen for a season and a half. Halfway through the 1976 season, Boston owner John Sterge began selling his players when he began to fear he would go bankrupt. The Minutemen sold Messing to the Cosmos who needed him after starter Bob Rigby was injured. Messing then played the 1977 season with the Cosmos before moving to the Oakland Stompers. When he signed with the Stompers for $100,000 per year, he became the highest paid American in the NASL. The Stompers lasted only a single season, following which Messing moved to the Rochester Lancers.
When the Major Indoor Soccer League began its first season in 1978-1979, the New York Arrows were essentially the Rochester Lancers in different uniforms. As such, Messing became the starting Arrows goalkeeper through the team's six years of existence. Messing became the league's dominant keeper, being named to the MISL All Star team in 1979, 1980 and 1981. He was the championship MVP in 1979.
When the Arrows fired coach Don Popovic in February 1983, the team named Messing, who was sidelined with an injury, as the interim coach. After his retirement, Messing was briefly part-owner of the ill fated New York Express which played the first half of the 1986-1987 MISL season before folding.
In 1991, Mr. Messing pled guilty to a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343, commonly referred to as Federal wire fraud. This violation came about during Mr. Messing's tenure as a corporate officer in a securities firm, although he never acted, nor was licensed as a broker or dealer. Mr. Messing was sentenced to five years probation. Mr. Messing filed a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of New York on November 17, 1995. The Bankruptcy Court confirmed the plan of reorganization on February 11, 1998.[1]
Messing has been a soccer broadcaster for sixteen years. He began as an analyst for the Major Indoor Soccer League games on ESPN. He broadcast the 1986 FIFA World Cup from Mexico, the 2002 FIFA World Cup from Japan/South Korea, and the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany for ESPN. He has also been the lead analyst for the MetroStars and the re-branded New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer for several years.
Despite his role as a broadcaster/analyst for MLS and other soccer matches, he is the player agent for U.S. under-20 and former D.C. United midfielder Danny Szetela.[2] This has led to some, including Washington Post soccer reporter Steven Goff, to question his objectivity in his work as an analyst.[3]
He 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.
In 2006, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame.
Messing served as an analyst for NBC Sports coverage of Soccer at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
He was also one of three commentators with Greg Lalas and Jason Saghini on MLS ExtraTime around 2008.
Messing wrote an autiobiography 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.
Messing appeared as a centerfold in a 1974 issue of Playgirl [4].
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