U.S. Soccer has named Jozy Altidore: national team forward, as its male athlete of the year for 2013. He captured an impressive 50% of votes cast by representatives of U.S. Soccer as well as members of the media. This is the first award of its kind for Altidore and it came in a year that saw some of his most impressive work to date. During the past season, he scored a total of eight goals for the national soccer team – a new career high – and tallied 31 times in the Netherlands playing for AZ Alkmaar. His performance for AZ earned him transfer to play for the English Premeire League in Sunderland.

Altidore was born in Livingston, New Jersey on November 6, 1989. He was the youngest of four children. He was raised in Boca Raton, Florida where we began playing soccer at a very young age. He quickly proved to be a valuable member of the Boca Raton Juniors Soccer Club, leading the team to victory in the Florida State Cup and a second-place victory in the Dallas Cup. At just 15 years old, he secured a residency with the U.S. U-17 team.

When he was just 16 years old, Altidore began playing professional soccer. He made his Major League Soccer debut playing for the New York Red Bulls, then transferred to Villarreal mid-season in 2008. He was then loaned out to other teams for several stints between 2009 and 2010. During that time, he played for Xerez, a Segunda Division club in Spain, Bursaspor in Turkey and spent the entire 2009/2010 season playing in the English Premier League in Hull City. It was in the summer of 2011 that he went to play full-time for AZ where he eventually earned a reputation for being one of the most formidable strikers in the world. In July, 2013, he was transferred to Sunderland.

Altidore has also represented the United States in international competition on various levels. He played for the U-17 U.S. team in FIFA’s 2005 U-17 World Championship as well as the U-20 team and FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2007. He also played in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing on the U-23 team, the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the FIFA World Cup in 2010.

But there is another side to Jozy Altidore off the field. As head of the Jozy Altidore foundation, he is committed to a number of philanthropic efforts. He takes great pleasure in giving to those who are in need. “As you all know, I want to make a difference through the Jozy Altidore Foundation, with the mission to help children in any way I can,” he said in a recent interview. “It’s the way GreenFields is making a difference in their respective industry as well. It’s their mission to create the perfect pitch guided by this principle: Innovation inspired by nature. Putting a lot of effort, time and investment in creating this truly green product. GreenFields MX is the best alternative for natural turf.”

Jozy Altidore Endorses Greenfields Turf Systems

Not only do we appreciate Jozy for his many accomplishments on the soccer field, we appreciate his support and enthusiasm for Greenfields turf products. What better voice do we have than that of the players who use our turf products – especially one who has played in so many venues – to speak of their quality and the experience of playing on them? Here is what Jenzy had to say about playing in the Dutch Cup for AZ on a surface designed by Greenfields:

“I played in the Eredivisie with reigning KNVB Dutch Cup champion AZ Alkmaar from 2011 to 2013 and experienced the GreenFields MX field at Heracles Almelo FC and PEC Zwolle FC. It was truly unbelievable, by far one of the best turf surfaces I have ever played on. The game quality is even better than I expected!”

Jenzy went on to describe in detail what he liked about playing on Greenfields turf systems and the difference it made in his game.

“This surface is fantastic. It is remarkably better than any other artificial surface I have seen or played on. It features perfect shock absorption and also makes it easy to control, kick the ball. Something else I noticed was that the speed of the ball is about the same as it is on natural turf. This surface is definitely the way forward. This GreenFields MX product allows me to prosper and gives me even more confidence when playing on it. It looks very natural as well, with a lot less infill splash than you experience on other synthetic turf fields.”

We at Greenfields are extremely proud of Jenzy’s accomplishments and appreciate his glowing endorsements of Greenfields Sports Turf products.