National Soccer Hall of Fame announces finalists for class of 2023
- by Arlo Moore-Bloom @ArloMBloom, Sep 8, 2022
The National Soccer Hall of Fame announced finalists for the 2023 Hall of Fame class on Thursday. As many as three players, two veterans, and one builder can be selected for the class that will be announced on May 6 after picked by committee vote.
Twenty players, 10 veterans and four builders are on the ballot.
Player Ballot FinalistsDaMarcus Beasley
David Beckham
Lori Chalupny
Lauren Cheney Holiday
Brian Ching
Dwayne DeRosario
Landon Donovan
Maurice Edu
Thierry Henry
Eddie Johnson
Keith Johnson
Jermaine Jones
Shalrie Joseph
Robbie Keane
Lori Lindsey
Pablo Mastroeni
Josh McKinney
Oguchi Onyewu
Cat Reddick Whitehill
Nick Rimando
• Players are eligible in the player category for a maximum of seven years and are only eligible after three years of full retirement.
• Player finalists in their first year of eligibility include DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan.
• The top vote getters who didn't get elected to the 2022 Class and are 2023 finalists are Lauren Cheney Holiday (75%) and Josh McKinney (72.9%).
Veteran Ballot Finalists
Chris Armas
Chico Borja
Mary Harvey
Frankie Hejduk
Clint Mathis
Shep Messing
Tony Sanneh
Kate Sobrero Markgraf
Tisha Venturini-Hoch
Slavisa "Steve" Zungul
• The veteran category is for players who were not selected when they were eligible for the player category and have been fully retired for at least 10 years. This year’s ballot class includes three women and seven men and players born in Ecuador, Serbia and the United States.
• The top vote getter who didn't get elected to the 2022 Class and is on the 2023 ballot is Kate Sobrero Markgraf (70.8%).
• All of the veteran finalists represented either the men’s or women’s national teams except Steve Zungul, who defected in December 1978 to escape mandatory military service in Yugoslavia (present-day Serbia) and became one of the most successful strikers in American indoor soccer history.
Builder Ballot Finalists
Clive Charles
Jill Ellis
Lothar Osiander
Frank Yallop
• The builder category is for coaches, referees, owners and administrators. This year’s selection will be a coach, per the rotation determined in 2020.
Here are:
• Selection committee members: by category;
• Election and eligibility procedures.
I honestly wish the process and eligibilty was different (at least for now). With our sport growing, MOST of the people above are worthy - let alone the people not even on the list(s) yet. More should be allowed in during this era. Alot of people have been instrumental in the growth of our sport.
Veterans: Hejduk is a legend, as is Mathis, Messing, Sanneh, Katie, and for sure Venturini and Zungul! They should've already been in.
And only picking 3 from Players is crazy. How are Beaz and LD not already in??
How long has Clive Charles been on the ballot??
I'd love to see all of the presentations for each player.