Matt Jones (footballer) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For another association footballer, see Matthew Robert Jones.

Matthew Graham Jones (born September 1, 1980 in Llanelli

Llanelli

Llanelli , the largest town in both the county of Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed , Wales, sits on the Loughor estuary on the West Wales coast, approximately west-north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. The town is famous for its proud rugby...

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

) is a former Welsh international football player, who last played for Llanelli

Llanelli A.F.C.

Llanelli Association Football Club is a Welsh semi-professional football club that plays in the Welsh Premier League for the 2010–11 season. The team has been based at Stebonheath Park since 1920, and as of 2009 is managed by Andy Legg....

in the Welsh Premier League. He has played centre-midfield for most of his career, though sometimes appeared at right back for Llanelli. He formerly played for Leeds United and Leicester City

Leicester City F.C.

Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...

. He married his childhood sweetheart, Sarah, during the summer of 2002.

Biography

Jones was born in Llanelli

Llanelli

, Wales

Wales

and joined the Leeds United Youth Academy in 1997 at the age of 17. Unable to establish himself as a first team regular he transferred to Leicester City in December 2000 for a fee of £3 million. He has scored only one league goal in his career in a 2-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough F.C.

Middlesbrough Football Club , also known as Boro, are an English football club based in Middlesbrough, who play in the Football League Championship. Formed in 1876, they have played at the Riverside Stadium since August 1995, their third ground since turning professional in 1889...

on September 17, 2001.

Intended to be a replacement for Neil Lennon

Neil Lennon

Neil Francis Lennon is a former footballer from Northern Ireland. He is the current manager and former captain of Celtic....

, his time with Leicester was littered with injuries. He spent a year out with a knee ligament injury received when tackled by Gary McAllister

Gary McAllister

Gary McAllister MBE is a Scottish former professional footballer.McAllister played primarily as a midfielder, in a successful career spanning over nineteen years. He started his career at local side Motherwell before moving south of the border to Leicester City at the age of 20...

in Liverpool

Liverpool F.C.

Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...

's 1-0 win against Leicester in January 2002. In August 2003 he trained with Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest F.C.

Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...

, but on his return to Leicester three weeks later was ruled out, initially for four further months, with a back injury.

After numerous operations in a bid to recover Jones decided to retire in 2004 at the age of 23. His last international game for Wales was a 2-0 away defeat to USA

United States men's national soccer team

The United States men's national soccer team represents the United States in international association football competitions. It is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF...

in May 2003, receiving a red card during his 13th appearance.

Since his retirement Jones worked within the sports media including appearances for BBC Sport

BBC Sport

BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...

, Sky Sports

Sky Sports

Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...

and John Barnes

John Barnes (footballer)

John Charles Bryan Barnes MBE is an English football manager and former player.During his playing career, Barnes had successful periods at Watford and Liverpool in the 1980s and 1990s, winning the First Division twice, the FA Cup twice, and playing for England 79 times...

Soccer Night and has both written a column on the BBC Sport website and been featured as part of the BBC Wales website Raise your game series.

In September 2007, Jones announced he would come out of retirement to play for Llanelli

Llanelli A.F.C.

in the Welsh Premier League.

Matt featured sporadically for Llanelli over 2 seasons, making 23 league appearances, scoring one goal. He has also added appearances in the Welsh Cup Final and the Champions League to his CV.

External links

The Matt Jones Column - BBC Online Sport

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.