Shaka Hislop

Neil Shaka Hislop is a social entrepreneur, current on-air talent, football analyst and commentator for ESPN Inc. Shaka is a Howard University alum, having graduated cum laude in 1992 with a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering. He then earned his second degree from HU in 2014 with an Executive MBA. In between earning Howard degrees Shaka played soccer professionally for 15 years, 14 of which were spent playing in England and 1 in the US’s Major League Soccer.

Shaka also represented Trinidad and Tobago at international level throughout his career, including the country’s solitary FIFA World Cup appearance in 2006. In 2005 Shaka was the recipient of the English Professional Footballers Association’s ‘Special Merit Award’ for his services to the game of football, becoming a member of their Honor Roll, joining Brazilian soccer legend Pele as the only other, at the time, non-British member. Shaka is a founding member, patron and Honorary President of anti-racism organization ‘Show Racism the Red Card’, the UK’s leading anti-racism educational charity. Shaka also sat on the Football Advisory Panel to the International Football Advisory Board from 2014 to 2018 advising on global sporting issues and law changes in soccer. He is a recipient of the Trinidad and Tobago ‘Chaconia Medal’, the country’s second highest national award, for his services to sport. In 2007, he received the ‘Alexander B. Chapman Award’ from the T&T Olympic Committee for outstanding contribution to sport and the promotion of the Olympic ideals. Shaka has also been inducted into the Howard University’s Athletic Hall of Fame, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Sports Hall of Fame. In 2019 Shaka founded the Second Half Sport Foundation which collects second-hand and used soccer equipment for distribution and use by the TT Police Service in their kids and community outreach programs in some of T&T’s most at-risk communities.

In 2022 Hislop was conferred the title of Honorary Freeman of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, and an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from Newcastle University for using his platform as a professional footballer in challenging racism in football, the city and society.