Tony Meola

Meola was born in Belleville, New Jersey. He grew up in Kearny. He played boys' soccer for Kearny High School.[2] He learned his love for the game from his father, Vincenzo, who played for Italian second division club Avellino before immigrating to the U.S. Meola was All-State both as a goalkeeper (1985) and a forward (1986). He had a part in 41 clean sheets and scored 42 goals during his high school career.

In 1999, Meola was named by The Star-Ledger as one of the top ten New Jersey high school soccer players of the 1980s.[3] Meola not only excelled at soccer, he was a three-sport varsity letterman. He was the captain of the school's basketball team and was named an All-State baseball player in 1987. The New York Yankees drafted him out of high school, though Meola did not sign a contract with them.

Meola attended the University of Virginia on a soccer/baseball athletic scholarship. While at Virginia, he played under coach Bruce Arena. By the time he was playing for the Cavaliers, he had already begun to make a name for himself on the international scene. In October 1987, he backstopped the U.S. U-20 national team at the 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship.[4] He earned first team All American honors both his freshman and sophomore years. He also won the Hermann Trophy as a freshman in 1988 and the MAC Award as a sophomore in 1989. On December 15, 1989 he announced that he was leaving U.Va. to pursue a career with the U.S. national team.

Meola also lettered for the U.Va. Cavaliers baseball team his freshman year of 1988 as a third baseman.[5]

Meola made his U.S. national team debut on June 10, 1988, against Ecuador. Meola's second cap came in a June 4, 1989 victory over Peru in the Marlboro Cup which won the U.S. the cup. The team took the trophy to the Scots-American Club in Kearny, New Jersey. After the party, Meola drove back to the team's hotel, dropped the trophy at the front desk and drove home. As he remembers it, "A week later Doug Newman called me up and asked where the cup was. I told him I'd left it at for him at the hotel. . . . I'm sure they got it back. Back then there weren't too many cups in U.S. Soccer."[11]

Later in the summer, the national team went on a tour of Italy, playing several Serie A teams. At the time, David Vanole was the U.S. starter, but he and Meola had traded goalkeeper duties over the previous month as Vanole fought USSF on a contract dispute and attempted to get his burgeoning weight under control. U.S. coach Bob Gansler intended to start Meola against A.S. Roma, but Meola was injured in a freak accident when a ball struck his head during practice. Vanole started in his place, but let in three weak goals in a 4-3 U.S. victory.[12] Gansler benched Vanole, who never again played for the U.S., and turned to Meola as his starting keeper. Meola played the remaining U.S. qualifying games for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, including the famous 1–0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago which clinched a spot in the finals for the U.S. He then played every minute in goal for the U.S. in the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Meola remained the keeper of choice for the U.S. national team from 1990 through the 1994 FIFA World Cup. At that tournament, his play and ponytail made him a recognizable face around the country. After the U.S. loss to Brazil in the second round of the World Cup, Meola informed the U.S. coach Bora Milutinović that he intended to pursue a professional American football career as a placekicker. Milutinović never called Meola back to the U.S. team.

It was not until January 1999 that Meola again played for the U.S. By that time, Kasey Keller and Brad Friedel were competing for the starting goalkeeper spot on the team and Meola never regained the first team place he had enjoyed in the early 1990s. However, he continued to play for the U.S. and earned his 100th cap in 2006. He was the third-choice goalkeeper at the 2002 FIFA World Cup behind Friedel and Keller.

Meola's non-soccer ventures include appearing Off-Broadway in Tony and Tina's Wedding in 1995, and running his own mortgage firm.

Meola was the original drummer for New Jersey's cover band Mushmouth and still plays with the band on occasions.

A soccer video game for the SNES with Meola's name, Tony Meola's Sidekicks Soccer (also known as Super Copa in Latin America and Ruy Ramos' World Wide Soccer in Japan), was released in 1993.

In 2012, Meola was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Meola now lives in Toms River, New Jersey[17] and has three children, Jon, Kylie, and Aidan. Jon Meola was a member of the University of Virginia baseball team during the 2016 season,[18] before transferring to Stetson University.[19]

Meola worked on beIN Sports coverage of Copa America. He also commentated MLS games for FOX when their lead commentators weren't available. In 2018, he was a featured commentator on FOX and FS1 for their United States broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup. In 2020, he was announced to be the color commentator for the Chicago Fire FC.

[20]

• List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps