Tennis Star Sloane Stephens' Husband Jozy Altidore Is A Pro Athlete Too

U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens and her husband Josmer Volmy "Jozy" Altidore's relationship story actually begins rather strangely. Stephens and Altidore go way back. In fact, she was in elementary school when she laid eyes on the seventh-grader who would eventually become her life partner. In a clip that has since been made private, she told YouTuber Avonna Wilson (via Good Housekeeping), "He used to bully me. We went to school together in fifth grade ... He was older than me. He used to bully me. He dumped me in the trash can and my mom had to come pick me up from school." Needless to say, he didn't make the best of impressions, and she later moved from Fort Lauderdale to further her tennis career.

Luckily, their second meet-cute went much better. Altidore told Vogue they came face-to-face at a Home Depot Center in 2016 while doing some promotion work for the U.S. Men's National team camp. He said, "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." At least one person was surprised that they had hit it off. Stephens recalled, "When I told my mom I was dating Jozy, she said, 'The boy who threw you in the trash can?'" At least the striker's athletic skills were now positively employed.

Jozy Altidore, like his wife Sloane Stephens, is a professional athlete.  Altidore was very young when his skills earned him a spot in the  U.S. Soccer Federation's youth residency program in Bradenton, Florida. At the tender age of 16, he was drafted by the New York MetroStars (now the Red Bulls) and became the youngest player in Major League Soccer history to score a goal in the playoffs. Altidore also represented the United States in the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup and was named the U.S. Soccer Male Athlete of the Year in 2016. The forward has also played for soccer clubs like Villarreal CF, AZ Alkmaar, Sunderland, Toronto FC, and New England Revolution.

However, it's not only Altidore's technical abilities that made him valuable – he was also a team player. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann previously revealed to ESPN, "He makes everyone around him a better player. It's real enjoyable, it's really fun." Altidore reaffirmed his belief in teamwork when he told Muscle and Fitness, "It's not only important to have people around you who are positive and helpful, but who are also constructive and are able to tell you the things that are important for you to hear, and help you improve on things you need to work on." This mindset can only improve relationships, especially the personal kind.

Sloane Stephens and Jozy Altidore spend plenty of time with Altidore's son from a previous relationship, Cameron.  The soccer star believes in balancing his professional and personal life. Before they tied the knot, Altidore told Muscle and Fitness, "You need to recover and make sure you have that downtime ... For me, I'm a family guy, so I'm with my son and my fiancée. We love to hang out and just be together." Even when making decisions about his soccer career, Altidore considers his family above everything else. When the striker signed with Toronto FC in 2019, he shared that the deciding factor for his decision to stay with the club was his son. In a press conference, he stated (via SportsNet), "Cameron is my life... I want him to be able to grow up in a place where... he can be happy, and have a great childhood." Daddy Jozy has spoken.

Stephens and Altidore want to expand their family and give Cameron some siblings. She told her Instagram fans that she had previously frozen her eggs, and was planning to do it again in the 2023 tennis off-season. Stephens answered a fan's question by saying (via Daily Express), "Family planning is great and I highly recommend egg freezing if it is feasible." The tennis star added, "I've always said I want to carry a baby, have a surrogate, and adopt. I want a lot of kids, but we will see what happens."