Early Life
Spector grew up in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois, which is also the hometown of former Fulham and US national team player Brian McBride. The youngest of four siblings, he played high school soccer at St. Viator High School and started his club soccer career with Schwaben AC in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, before joining national power Chicago Sockers. He graduated from the United States Soccer Federation's Bradenton Academy at the age of 17 in the summer of 2003. His father is of Russian Jewish, English, and Irish ancestry, and his mother was born in Siegen, Germany. Spector has acquired a German passport, enabling him to play in England without needing a work permit.
Spector's grandfather was the NBA basketball player Art Spector, who was the first player to be signed by the Boston Celtics in 1946 and is known as the "Original Celtic". He died in June 1987 when Jonathan was 15 months old.
Read more about this topic: Jonathan Spector
Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)