Sloane Stephens and Jozy Altidore have been a power couple. The former striker of the US men’s national soccer team married the American WTA sensation back in 2022. The latter is among the popular faces to watch out for in the ongoing Australian Open 2025. The Happy Slam has already kickstarted down under on Sunday and the 31-year-old is set to begin her campaign against World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the first round. Ahead of her first encounter, let’s take a deeper look into her husband’s professional life. After all, Altidore has been a recognized name in the soccer world. But is he still actively playing the sport?

Altidore began his professional soccer career 18 years ago, in 2006 for the New York Red Bulls. Later, he made it into the national soccer team of the United States. For the unversed, he’s been part of two World Cup campaigns of USA – in 2010 and 2014. Playing for Team USA, he also won the Player of the Year Award in 2013. He earned the honors again in the year 2015. In the same year, he transferred to Toronto FC of the Major League Soccer, after appearing for clubs like Villarreal and AZ Alkmaar. In 2019, he made his final appearance for America and ended his national career with 42 goals.

Jozy Altidore left the Toronto FC in 2022 after a period of seven years. Sharing an emotional message on Instagram, he wrote, “Thank you Toronto and all the fans for a wonderful 7 years. To all the staff and my teammates throughout this time, THANK YOU!! Toronto will always be home.”

Altidore soon signed a new deal, as a forward, with another MLS team The New England Revolution. However, the club exercised a contract buyout on him in the 2023 season. He had scored just two goals in 27 league games. Following the buyout, he was basically left as a free agent, at 33, with the option to sign anywhere else.

In case you are wondering if he eventually retired from soccer, that’s not the case. He hasn’t really made an official announcement of saying goodbye to the sport just yet. However, he’s not been actively involved with any team since 2023. Lately, he has started a soccer training facility called Sogility. It constructs indoor fields in states where weather conditions are on a colder side. Apart from that, he’s also been seen spending precious time with his wife and tennis star Sloane Stephens. But how did they meet?

Sloane Stephens and Jozy Altidore’s childhood bond

Before they turned adults and fell in love, Sloane Stephens and Jozy Altidore already met as kids in middle school. They both went to Boca Prep International School when Stephens was in fifth grade. Altidore was studying in the seventh grade at that time, as revealed by him in an interview with Vogue on January 4, 2022. Stephens then moved to a different place and didn’t reconnect with him until 2016. That year, basically they ran into each other at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

This coincidental meeting later turned into a romantic relationship. “I was doing a media scrum in the hallway during a US Mens National team camp,” Altidore told Vogue. “Sloane was there training for Fed Cup in Hawaii. Sloane turned the corner while having a loud conversation on FaceTime. We locked eyes and started talking during the scrum. We exchanged contacts and went to dinner after my game versus Iceland. The rest was history,” he added.

In 2019, they got engaged after Altidore proposed to Stephens in April. “We went to church in L.A. and then I made up an excuse telling Sloane that I wanted to check out a painting at an art gallery that I saw on Instagram and was thinking of buying,” he said, as reported by Vogue. “When we got to the gallery, it was filled with her family and friends and instead of paintings, the gallery was decorated with massive canvases of photos from our relationship and all the people who have played a role in Sloane’s life up to this point. It was really cool that all the people in the photos were surrounding us when I popped the question,” he concluded.

On the other hand, Stephens said, “Jozy was acting nervous, and he’s definitely not an art gallery kind of guy, but when we walked in and I saw everyone, I was completely blown away! It was so surreal when he got down on one knee” Later in an Instagram post, they revealed about their engagement. “Forever yes ❤️,” Stephens wrote in the caption. Similarly, Altidore also wrote, “Forever starts now ❤️.” Speaking of the marriage, they tied the knot in January 2022 at the St. Regis Bal Harbour in Miami Beach, in Florida.

Coming back to his wife Stephens, she’s currently busy participating in the first Major of 2025. Last year, at the 2024 Australian Open in Melbourne, she reached the third round. However, Anna Kalinskaya stopped her campaign and won the match 6-7, 6-1, 6-4. This time, the World No.84 in singles is facing No.1 seed Aryna Sabalenka. Will she emerge victorious against the two-time back-to-back AO queen? What are your thoughts on the American’s chances? Let us know in the comments below.