Shaka Hislop

Early career

At an early age, Hislop wanted to be a striker, but was put as goalkeeper as he was the tallest player on his team. He eventually grew to just under 6'5" in height. After graduating from St. Mary's College in Trinidad, Hislop earned a scholarship to play college soccer at Howard University in the United States and led his team to the NCAA Final as a freshman starter. He graduated from Howard with honours with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. During this time, he interned at NASA.

Reading

Shortly after graduating, Hislop was spotted by a scout from Reading at a friendly indoor match against Aston Villa of the Premier League. He went on to sign professional forms with Reading for the 1992–93 season and remained there for two more years. While there, he established himself as a firm fan favourite after an uncertain start, twice earning the club's "Player of the Year" award. He was instrumental in Reading's rise from the third tier of English football to the brink of the Premier League, where he narrowly missed out on promotion following a 4–3 defeat to Bolton Wanderers in the 1995 play-off final, and was voted the club's Player of the Season in 1994–95. Hislop was one of many Reading players to move that summer of 1995, signing with Newcastle United for £1.575 million. In a poll to compile Reading's greatest-ever XI, Hislop was voted the best goalkeeper with 46.7% of the vote ahead of Steve Death and Marcus Hahnemann. He was also voted joint…

Youth

Hislop was a youth international for Trinidad and Tobago. He had played in three games for Trinidad and Tobago before 1989. In 1992, he was called up to the Trinidad national football team but was an unused substitute in three games. In May 1995, he said that he would prefer to play for England as he was born and raised there, and the standard of competition was higher.

England

Hislop was called up for England against Chile at Wembley Stadium in February 1998. A month later, at the age of 29, he was one of three over-age players selected to play for the England U-21 side against Switzerland.

Trinidad and Tobago

Eventually, Hislop chose to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the senior level. He played a total of 26 times for the Twin Island nation, also captaining the team in five matches. Hislop had announced his retirement from international football in 2004, citing the long journeys between England and the Caribbean as a factor, but returned to the national team to aid them in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers at the request of the Trinidad and Tobago national team management. In 2005, he was part of the Trinidad and Tobago side that qualified for the 2006 World Cup with a victory over Bahrain. The draw for the World Cup placed them in Group B alongside Sweden, Paraguay and England. On 10 June 2006, Hislop played in the Trinidad and Tobago national team's first ever World Cup match, a 0–0 draw against Sweden, replacing Kelvin Jack who…

On 17 March 2009, Hislop signed a contract to be an assistant coach while primarily working with the goalkeepers of the Quinnipiac University football team. After a brief period he resigned as coach due to his media commitments with ESPN.

In 2008, Hislop began a weekly blog covering Major League Soccer for the British newspaper The Guardian's website. He works as a commentator on ESPN FC TV and in addition to commentary he has also interviewed several major footballing figures, including his former club manager Harry Redknapp after his move from Portsmouth to Tottenham Hotspur, USA international goalkeeper Kasey Keller, and Portuguese manager José Mourinho after he led Chelsea to the Premier League title in 2015.