Jason Irvin Winans Dozzell (born 9 December 1967) is an English football manager 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 ...

. As a player, he was a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who notably played 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

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. He also played 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

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

and

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

before finishing his career with non-league sides

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office ...

and

Grays Athletic Grays Athletic Football Club is a football club based in Grays, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Parkside in nearby Aveley. History The club was established as Grays Juniors in 1890, before merging with former S ...

. He was capped nine times at

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

level. Dozzell holds the record for being the youngest goalscorer in England's top division after scoring for

against

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

in a First Division match on 4 February 1984 at the age of 16 years and 57 days (the youngest goalscorer since the formation of the Premier League is Everton's James Vaughan, aged 16 years 270 days). His son Andre also scored on his Ipswich debut aged 16. Following retirement, he went on to manage several

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 ...

clubs, both in the

Eastern Counties Football League The Eastern Counties Football League, currently known as the Thurlow Nunn League for sponsorship purposes, is an English football league at levels 9 and 10 of the English football league system. It currently contains clubs from Norfolk, Suffol ...

— Ipswich Wanderers and

Leiston Leiston ( ) is an English town in the East Suffolk non-metropolitan district of Suffolk, near Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, about from the North Sea coast, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at the ...

Early life

Born in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, Suffolk, in 1967, Dozzell attended the local Chantry High School. Dozzell is of American descent through his father, who left the family and returned to America, only seeing Dozzell again when he turned 21.

Playing career

Playing football for the Langham Lions in the Colchester Youth League, Dozzell was noted as a "prolific schoolboy scorer", and was signed on schoolboy terms for

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

despite interest from

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

and

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. Selected for the senior squad by manager Bobby Ferguson, Dozzell made his debut for Ipswich Town in February 1984, coming on as a substitute against

. Ipswich won the match 3–1; Dozzell scored late in the second half, becoming the youngest player, at 16 years and 57 days, to score in the old English

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

. He went on to make four further appearances in the 1983–84 season. The following season Dozzell made twenty appearances, five of them from the bench, and scored four goals. In the 1985–86 season he became a regular starter for Ipswich, scoring five goals in 51 games, although the club were relegated to the

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

. His 1986–87 season saw him play in every game, making 42 league and 11 cup appearances and scoring a single goal. He was also selected for the England under-21 team, for whom he played nine times without scoring. In the 1988–89 season, Dozzell finished as the club's joint top-scorer (with

John Wark John Wark (born 4 August 1957) is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame. W ...

and

Dalian Atkinson Dalian Robert Atkinson (21 March 1968 – 15 August 2016) was an English professional footballer who played as a striker. During his club football career, he played in England for Ipswich Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Aston Villa and Manchester Ci ...

), scoring 13 goals from 37 appearances. The following two seasons saw Dozzell as a regular starter for the team, with 18 goals from 88 appearances. His 16 goals in the 1991–92 season helped

John Lyall John Angus Lyall (24 February 1940 – 18 April 2006) was an English footballer and manager primarily known for his 34 years at West Ham United. He played for the club as a youth, then as a first-team player before injury cut short his career. ...

's Ipswich win the league title and secure promotion to the newly formed

. He featured regularly the following season, scoring nine goals in 52 games and helping the club stave off relegation in their first season back in the top tier of English football. In August 1993, Dozzell was sold to

for £1.9 million; in his first season, he made 36 appearances and scored ten goals across all competitions. Dozzell suffered numerous injuries during his time at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

, restricting the number of games in which he played. In the 1994–95 season, he managed just eight appearances with one goal. He made a total of 89 league and cup appearances and scored 14 goals over his four seasons at the club. Dozzell made a brief return to Portman Road in 1997, on loan for a month, and made ten appearances before signing for

in 1997. A season with The Cobblers saw him score four goals from 26 appearances and help the club to the

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. This was followed by a move to newly promoted

, initially on a monthly contract, where Dozzell made more than 100 appearances and scored 11 goals over three seasons. Dozzell retired from professional football in 2001 as a result of persistent injuries, in particular an ongoing toe problem. However, he continued playing with

non-league 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 ...

clubs; a brief spell with

reunited him with former Colchester and Ipswich player Neil Gregory. Canvey Island released him and he moved on to an even shorter stay with

, who signed him alongside Carl Leaburn. This was followed by a move back to Ipswich and into management.

Managerial career

Dozzell took his first step into management with

club Ipswich Wanderers in 2003. In his role as

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

, he moved to play in defence and secured an eighth-place finish in the league during his first season with the club. The following season, he led them to the league title and promotion to the

Eastern Counties League The Eastern Counties Football League, currently known as the Thurlow Nunn League for sponsorship purposes, is an English football league at levels 9 and 10 of the English football league system. It currently contains clubs from Norfolk, Suff ...

Premier Division. The 2005–06 season saw Dozzell lead the newly promoted club to seventh in the league, but despite ending the season with a record tally of points, he left the Wanderers, citing off-pitch issues at the club. Dozzell went on to manage

, but he left in November 2007.

Personal life

He is the father of professional footballer

Andre Dozzell Andre Leon Dozzell (born 2 May 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Queens Park Rangers. Dozzell graduated from the academy at his hometown club Ipswich Town, scoring on his senior debut in 2016. He has won ...

. He has supported local charities, including acting as a patron for ''"Operation Santa Claus"'', run in conjunction with radio station

SGR-FM Heart Ipswich (formerly SGR FM) was a radio station that evolved from Suffolk Group Radio, which was the parent company for two Independent radio stations serving the county of Suffolk in England. Overview The older of the radio stations was Radi ...

. He played for a "Town Legends" side against a

Soccer AM ''Soccer AM'' is a British football-based comedy/talk show, produced by Sky Sports. First broadcast in 1995, the programme currently airs on Sky Showcase, Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Football at 10.30am on Saturdays during the fo ...

team in 2005 to raise money for the Academy, where his son, Andre, was in the under-10s team. In 2007, he was found guilty of driving with excess alcohol and was banned for three years.

Honours

Ipswich Town *

Winner (1): 1991–92 Individual * Ipswich Town Hall of Fame: Inducted 2015

References

;General * ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Dozzell, Jason 1967 births Living people Footballers from Ipswich Men's association football midfielders English footballers Premier League players English Football League players Black British sportsmen Ipswich Town F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Canvey Island F.C. players Grays Athletic F.C. players England men's under-21 international footballers English people of American descent English football managers Ipswich Wanderers F.C. managers Leiston F.C. managers