Thierry Henry played for the Red Bulls for 4 1/2 seasons. (Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports)

FRISCO, Texas — Five former players with area connections were named to the final ballot of 20 players for the 2021 National Soccer Hall of Fame election.

They included Red Bulls forward Thierry Henry, who coaches Montreal FC, Sky Blue FC and U.S. women’s national team defender Christie Pearce Rampone, New York Power midfielder Shannon Boxx, Red Bulls goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, who was on the roster, but never played for the team, and New England Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph of Brooklyn, N.Y., a standout with St. John’s University.

Also on the ballot were David Beckham, current U.S. men’s national coach Gregg Berhalter, Steve Cherunodolo, Oguchi Onyewu, Hope Solo, Aly Wagner and Josh Wolf.

The selection committee will vote Friday through Feb. 10 to select a class of two to four members. The 2021 class will be announced in March.

The 2021 Hall of Fame ceremony is scheduled for May 22 and will enshrine both the 2020 class (Carlos Bocanegra and Colin Jose Media Award Winner Andrés Cantor) and the 2021 class. The ceremony will take place in the National Soccer Hall of Fame, which is powered by NEC, followed by the Hall of Fame game between FC Dallas and a yet-to-be-named opponent and a concert featuring Willie Nelson.

Player ballot finalists:

David Beckham
Gregg Berhalter
Shannon Boxx
Lori Chalupny
Lauren Cheney Holiday
Steve Cherundolo
Kevin Hartman
Frankie Hejduk
Thierry Henry
Keith Johnson
Shalrie Joseph
Pablo Mastroeni
Josh McKinney
Heather Mitts
Oguchi Onyewu
Christie Pearce Rampone
Cat Reddick Whitehill
Hope Solo
Aly Wagner
Josh Wolff

Berhalter and Hejduk are in their final year of eligibility. If they are not elected, they will appear on the veteran ballot next year. Five candidates — Johnson, Joseph, McKinney, Onyewu and Pearce Rampone — were selected to the final ballot in their first year of eligibility.

Johnson and McKinney were chosen to the final ballot following changes in 2020 that created a path to eligibility for U.S. extended national teams, including the men’s and women’s Para 7-a-Side national teams, the Futsal national team and the men’s and women’s Beach Soccer national teams.

In addition to the 20 Finalists, 17 other players received enough preliminary ballot votes. The four eligible players who did not receive any votes — Kenny Cooper, Sebastien LeToux, Matt Stewart and Brittany Taylor — will be removed from the player eligibility List via the sunset rule. Each will regain eligibility on the veteran list after 10 full years of retirement.

The 2021 Hall of Fame ceremony is scheduled for May 22 and will enshrine both the 2020 class (Carlos Bocanegra and Colin Jose Media Award Winner Andrés Cantor) and the 2021 class. The ceremony will take place in the National Soccer Hall of Fame, which is powered by NEC, followed by the Hall of Fame game between FC Dallas and a yet-to-be-named opponent and a concert featuring Willie Nelson.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.