Matt Jones (footballer, born 1980)

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Matt Jones
Personal information
Full name Matthew Jones
Date of birth (1980-09-01) 1 September 1980 (age 43)
Place of birth Llanelli, Wales
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Wales U21 (manager)
Youth career
1997–2000 Leeds United
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1997–2000 Leeds United 23 (0)
2000–2004 Leicester City 27 (1)
2007–2009 Llanelli 23 (1)
Total73(2)
International career
1999–2003 Wales 13 (0)
Managerial career
2020–2022 Wales U18
2022– Wales U21
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Matthew Jones (born 1 September 1980 in Llanelli, Wales) is a Welsh former international footballer. He made his professional debut in the Premier League for Leeds United and played his last professional game for his home town club Llanelli in the Welsh Premier League. He has played centre-midfield for most of his career, though sometimes appeared at right back. He formerly played for Leeds United and Leicester City.

Contents

Playing career

Jones was born in Llanelli, Wales and joined the Leeds United Youth Academy in 1994 at the age of fourteen. He transferred to Leicester City in December 2000 for a fee of £3.5million. He scored one league goal, in a 2–1 home defeat to Middlesbrough on 17 September 2001. [1]

Intended to be a replacement for Neil Lennon at Leicester City, manager Peter Taylor hailed Jones as the new Lennon, [2] but his time with Leicester was littered with injuries. He spent a year out with a knee ligament injury [3] received when tackling Gary McAllister in Liverpool's 1–0 win against Leicester in January 2002. In August 2003 he trained with Nottingham Forest, but on his return to Leicester three weeks later was ruled out, initially for four further months, with a back injury. [4]

After numerous operations in a bid to recover Jones decided to retire in 2004 at the age of 23. [5] His last international game for Wales was a 2–0 away defeat to USA in May 2003, receiving a red card during his 13th appearance. [6] [7]

In September 2007, Jones announced he would come out of retirement to play for Llanelli in the Welsh Premier League. [8] Jones featured sporadically for Llanelli over two seasons, making 23 league appearances, scoring one goal and contributing while studying for his coaching qualifications by winning the Welsh Premier league for the first time in the club's history and furthering their success with a league cup final title completing the double that year. He has also added appearances in the Welsh Cup Final and the Champions League to his CV. [ citation needed ]

Coaching

In September 2021 Jones was appointed manager of the Wales national under-21 football team having previously managed the Wales under-18 team. [9]

Media

Since his playing retirement Jones worked within the sports media including appearances for BBC Sport, Sky Sports and John Barnes Soccer Night and has both written a column on the BBC Sport website [10] and been featured as part of the BBC Wales website Raise your game series. [11]

Personal

Jones has taken part in many marathons, including the London marathon and various charity events in the aid of his good friend, Gary Speed. He lives in his hometown with his wife and four children. [ citation needed ]

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References

  1. ↑ "Boro stun Foxes". BBC. 17 September 2001. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
  2. ↑ "Taylor hails Jones as the new Lennon". Evening Standard. London. 14 December 2000. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  3. ↑ "Oster and Jones return for Wales". BBC Sport. 27 January 2003. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
  4. ↑ "Jones out for four months". BBC Sport. 2 August 2003. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
  5. ↑ "Jones forced to retire". BBC Sport. 4 June 2004. Retrieved 23 October 2008.
  6. ↑ "USA sink poor Wales". BBC Sport. 27 May 2003. Retrieved 23 October 2008.
  7. ↑ "Matt Jones, footballer". BBC . Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  8. ↑ "Llanelli get their man". NonLeagueDaily. 12 September 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
  9. ↑ Jones Wales under 21 manager
  10. ↑ "Matthew Jones column". BBC Sport. 27 January 2006. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
  11. ↑ "Concentration". BBC Wales. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
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