Jake King (born 29 January 1955) is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager and former professional player.

Career

Playing career

King, who played as a full back, began as an apprentice with

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

, before making his professional debut in 1971. King made a total of 306 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for Shrewsbury, scoring 20 goals, before leaving in 1982 to join

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

. At Wrexham, King made 92 League appearances, scoring 5 goals. On 3 October 1984, away to

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

in the first round of the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

, he scored twice in the first half of a 4–3 away defeat as Wrexham beat the Portuguese on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

. King's final League club was

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

, where he made 30 appearances, before joining

Limerick City Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 c ...

in Ireland.

Coaching career

In 1987, King advised then Shrewsbury Town player

David Moyes David William Moyes ( ; born 25 April 1963) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Premier League club West Ham United. He was previously the manager of Preston North End, Everton, Manches ...

to his first coaching role, at Concord College. King left his position as manager of Telford United to manage former club

in May 1997; he was sacked in November 1999. He later returned to Telford United, before being sacked in April 2004. King was appointed First Team Coach at

Aberystwyth Town Aberystwyth Town Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-Droed Tref Aberystwyth) is a Welsh semi-professional Association football, football team, currently playing in the Cymru Premier, the top tier of football in Wales. They are the only top flight men ...

in June 2009.

Business interests

King worked as a chef before his professional playing career and since has also run restaurants. He ran a restaurant in Ireland for five years, commuting from England to personally run the kitchen. He later acquired a public house called ''The Cross Gates'' at

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

near Shrewsbury which three years later he converted into a restaurant called ''Smokestop BBQ'', and ran it as an American

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with t ...

with his wife and son before selling the business in 2016.Report by Andy Richardson.

Personal life

Another of King's sons, Jordan, is also a footballer, and played under his father at Telford United.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Jake 1955 births Living people Scottish footballers Scottish football managers Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Limerick F.C. players English Football League players Telford United F.C. managers Shrewsbury Town F.C. managers English Football League managers Association football fullbacks