Jason John Blunt (born 16 August 1977) is an English football coach and former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played in

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

. He currently works for I2I International Soccer Academy after leaving his role as the

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

academy as the under-23s manager in the summer of 2017, after a spell as development squad manager as well as under-18s manager. Blunt left his role at Mousehole AFC in March 2018 to join I2I International Soccer Academy as Lead Coach.

Playing career

He began his playing career with

, making a handful of first-team appearances in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for the club, making his first team debut under

Howard Wilkinson Howard Wilkinson (born 13 November 1943) is an English former footballer and manager. Despite having a low-profile playing career, Wilkinson embarked on a successful managerial career. He won the First Division championship in 1992 with Leeds ...

, however, Blunt found places hard to come by with likes of

Lee Bowyer Lee David Bowyer (; born 3 January 1977) is an English football manager and former professional player. As a player, he was a midfielder who featured for Charlton Athletic, Leeds United, West Ham United (two spells), Newcastle United, Birmingha ...

Carlton Palmer Carlton Lloyd Palmer (born 5 December 1965) is an English football manager, former footballer and football television pundit whose last management role was as manager of Grantham Town. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1984 to 2005, playi ...

Alfie Haaland Alfie Haaland (born Alf-Inge Rasdal Håland; 23 November 1972) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a right-back or midfielder. He is the father of current Manchester City player Erling Haaland. Haaland played in the Prem ...

Bruno Ribeiro Bruno Miguel Fernandes Ribeiro (born 22 October 1975) is a Portuguese football manager and former player who is now the head coach at Campeonato de Portugal club Moura. A midfielder with a powerful left-foot strike, he began his playing ca ...

, Matt Jones and

Stephen McPhail Stephen John Paul McPhail (born 9 December 1979) is an Irish former professional footballer and the sporting director of Shamrock Rovers in the League of Ireland Premier Division. A play-making central midfielder, McPhail started his career at ...

all vying for places in Leeds' central midfield, before moving into

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 ...

and

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

Coaching career

Blunt, who managed Sutton Town for six months in 2007, now coaches sports and

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

Independent School while coaching at Leeds United Academy. After coaching Leeds' under-12 team, after

Richard Naylor Richard Alan Naylor (born 28 February 1977) is an English former footballer who played as a centre-back. Naylor started his career at Ipswich Town, where he played as a striker up until he was moved to centre-back by Joe Royle in 2002; he co ...

left the club in the summer of 2014, Blunt became the new coach of Leeds' under-18s and the development squad manager. For the final five games of the 2014/15 season, Blunt assisted the then Leeds head coach

Neil Redfearn Neil David Redfearn (born 20 June 1965) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, who was most recently head coach of Sheffield United Women. Redfearn played 790 matches in the Football League, the sixth highest ...

in the first team after the suspension of Redfearn's assistant Steve Thompson. On 5 August 2015, Leeds United appointed

Daral Pugh Daral James Pugh (born 5 June 1961) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is currently head of coaching for the Sheffield Wednesday academy. Playing career During his playing career, Pugh played for Doncaster R ...

as the head of academy coaching, effectively replacing Redfearn and Blunt (who had previously been filling in for Redfearn during his spell as head coach of the first team), and

John Anderson John Anderson may refer to: Business *John Anderson (Scottish businessman) (1747–1820), Scottish merchant and founder of Fermoy, Ireland * John Byers Anderson (1817–1897), American educator, military officer and railroad executive, mentor of ...

became under-18s manager. Blunt was named as a coach to work alongside Anderson. On 24 June 2016, Blunt was promoted to under-23's/development squad manager. On 7 June 2017, Blunt left his position at Leeds to join Mousehole AFC. In March 2018 Blunt left his role at Mousehole AFC to join I2I International Soccer Academy as Lead Coach.

International career

During his playing career he represented England U18's in games again France and Scotland.

Personal life

His son, Connor Leak-Blunt, is also a footballer, and after progressing through the academies of

and

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

, entered non-league football.

References

External links

Blunt's profile at Soccerbase
1977 births Living people Footballers from Cornwall Sportspeople from Penzance English men's footballers Leeds United F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Scarborough F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Tamworth F.C. players Halifax Town A.F.C. players Sutton Town A.F.C. players Goole A.F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Scottish Football League players Leeds United F.C. non-playing staff Men's association football midfielders Association football coaches {{England-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub