Jonathan Michael Paul Spector (born March 1, 1986) is an American former soccer player who played as a defender. In his 16-year career playing first-team soccer he played over 400 games for club and country, and helped the United States win the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2007. He earned 36 caps for the United States national team. He is now the Head of Scouting for MLS side Atlanta United.
Spector started his professional career in England when he was signed by Manchester United as a teenager, but rarely appeared for the club. He played on loan at Charlton Athletic, then in 2006 joined West Ham United, for whom he played over 100 games before he was released at the end of the 2010–11 season. He then spent five and a half seasons with Birmingham City. Spector then played for MLS club Orlando City and had a short spell with Scottish club Hibernian. He retired as a player in 2019.
Although he began playing as a striker during his youth career, Spector was converted into a defender as a professional. He most commonly played as a right-back, although he occasionally appeared across the defensive line and in central midfield.
Spector was born and grew up in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois the youngest of four children. He is Lutheran, but his paternal grandfather was Jewish. His father is of Russian, English and Irish ancestry, and his mother was born in Siegen, Germany. As a result, Spector has a German passport, which allowed him to play in England without needing a work permit. Spector's grandfather, Art Spector, was an NBA basketball player and the first player to be signed by the Boston Celtics in 1946, which led to him becoming known as the "Original Celtic". Art died in June 1987, when Jonathan was 15 months old.
Spector attended St. Peter Lutheran Junior High School and St. Viator High School, where he played high school soccer. He was an Amateur Athletic Union basketball standout. He started his club soccer career with Schwaben AC in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, before joining national power Chicago Sockers (2003). He also played youth soccer with Chicago Fire (2003) and Manchester United (2003). He graduated from the United States Soccer Federation's Bradenton Academy at the age of 17 in the summer of 2003.
Spector was discovered by a Manchester United scout while playing for the American Under-17 squad at the Milk Cup in 2003. Originally a striker, Spector was lined up in defense due to injuries for a game the scout had attended to scout other players. Impressed by Spector's defending, the scout alerted the club.
Spector joined United in summer 2003. He won the club's Young Player of the Year award for the 2003–04 season. He made his first appearance for the first team in the FA Community Shield match against Arsenal in August 2004. In December, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson announced that Spector would be loaned out to fellow Premier League side Blackburn Rovers for the remainder of the season. However, Ferguson was forced to postpone the deal due to an injury crisis in the United defense. The injury crisis continued and Spector was not able to make his loan move before the transfer window closed on January 31, 2005. Before the start of the 2005–06 season, Spector went on a season-long loan to another Premiership club, Charlton Athletic, to obtain more first-team experience. He finished the season with 16 starts and eight substitute appearances.
Spector was signed by manager Alan Pardew for West Ham United in a deal initially worth £500,000 in June 2006, ending his association with Manchester United after eight appearances. He made his debut for the club in the first round defeat of the UEFA Cup against Palermo in Sicily on September 28, going on to make twenty-eight appearances in all competitions in the 2006–07 season. Spector had initially been brought as backup to the West Ham defense, but he had an extended run of games due to injury problems and his ability to play anywhere in the back four with equal ease. On November 10, 2007, it was believed that Spector had scored his first professional goal, in the 5–0 away win at Derby County. However, this was later credited as an own goal by Derby's fellow American international Eddie Lewis.
He missed most of the 2008–09 season due to injuries, but following the departure of Lucas Neill, Spector played in 27 of a possible 38 games in the 2009–10 season. Many of his appearances that year came at left-back, despite being a right footed player. When Gianfranco Zola left, new manager Avram Grant began deploying Spector in the midfield. He scored his first goals for West Ham and first in English football, scoring twice in a 4–0 home win over former club Manchester United in the League Cup on November 30, 2010. He scored his first Premier League goal in the 2–2 draw away to Everton later that season. Spector was released by West Ham in June 2011.
Spector signed a two-year contract with Championship club Birmingham City in August 2011, four days before the opening of the league season. He made his debut in Birmingham's first match in major European competition for nearly 50 years, the Europa League play-off round first leg against Portuguese club Nacional, which finished goalless. Three days later, he played his first league game in English soccer at a level below the Premier League, in a 3–1 defeat at Middlesbrough. Spector was played in central midfield for the first few months of his Birmingham City career, a position he said he enjoyed, and filled in at right-back in the European matches as Birmingham failed by a point to progress past the group stage. Later in the season, he was used more frequently at right-back, at the expense of captain Stephen Carr, and occasionally at left-back. The Birmingham Mail's end-of-season review viewed his versatility as "an invaluable asset". He missed the last two months of the season with a torn thigh muscle, returning for Birmingham's unsuccessful play-off campaign only to suffer a recurrence of the injury which was to keep him out of the summer's international program.
Carr was injured in the final pre-season game, and the only alternative right-back was the teenaged Will Packwood. Despite having taken no part in the warm-up games, Spector returned to action in the opening match of the 2012–13 season, as a second-half substitute for Packwood, and started the next, though "short of match sharpness, he was rusty and had a torrid time of it". He scored his first goal for Birmingham in a 3–2 defeat by Coventry City in the League Cup on August 28. New manager Lee Clark preferred his "drive and energy" in midfield, with right-back duties shared between Packwood, loan signing Paul Caddis and others, but injuries soon forced his return to full-back. Spector was restricted to 10 appearances in the second half of the season by a succession of minor injuries, culminating in ankle damage sustained in early April that kept him out for what remained of the campaign. Although several senior players were released at the end of the season, Spector agreed a further two-year contract, which he signed after he and wife Olivia Metzinger returned from honeymoon.
Two weeks later, Spector fractured his cheekbone in five places during a pre-season game. He returned to Birmingham's midfield for the 3–2 defeat by Leicester City in late August, and a month later was involved in an eventful match at Queens Park Rangers. He had a goal disallowed shortly before QPR took the lead, and after 79 minutes was yellow-carded for diving in the penalty area when it appeared that Richard Dunne had tripped him. In mid-October, he tore a thigh muscle in training. This time, the injury kept him out for four months; he returned in mid-February 2014, and was a regular starter from then on, as Birmingham avoided relegation to League One on goal difference via a stoppage-time equalizer in the last match of the season.
Again, Spector began the 2014–15 season as a regular starter, tore a thigh muscle a couple of months in, and missed the next four months. By the time he regained fitness, Gary Rowett had replaced Clark as manager, Caddis was the right-back of choice, and Michael Morrison and Paul Robinson had established themselves at center-back, which Spector had told Rowett was his position of choice. When Morrison injured an ankle in late January, he came back into the team in that position, initially with Robinson, then partnering loanee Rob Kiernan, and finishing the season, after a minor injury that coincided with Morrison's return to fitness, playing alongside the latter.