Joseph Patrick Jones (born 4 March 1955
) is a Welsh former international
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 ...
full-back who most notably played for
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
, with whom he won two
European Cups.
Club career
Wrexham
Jones was born in
Llandudno
Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Penrhyn Bay, Craig ...
, and joined
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 ...
in 1971. He made his debut at the age of 17 in a
Welsh Cup
The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the most ...
tie against local rivals
Chester City; Wrexham lost 1–0. He did, however, win the Welsh Cup with the club in 1975, when they beat
Cardiff City in the final. Jones established himself as a right-back and helped Wrexham to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1974, the first time the club had reached that stage.
[
]
Liverpool
Jones left Wrexham to join his boyhood heroes, Liverpool (he had a Liverbird tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...
, which he later had removed for medical reasons, on his forearm), when Bob Paisley
Robert Paisley OBE (23 January 1919 – 14 February 1996) was an English professional football manager and player who played as a wing-half. He spent almost 50 years with Liverpool and is regarded, due to his achievements with the club, ...
paid £110,000 for his services in July 1975. He made his debut on 16 August in a 2–0 league defeat to Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
at Loftus Road
Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers.
In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...
. He missed out on a league championship medal in 1975–76, as he did not play enough matches to qualify.
In 1977 left back Jones was part of the treble-chasing Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
team which won the League championship and reached the finals of the FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
and European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
.[ Jones scored his first goal for the club on 9 November 1976 in the 5–1 league thrashing of ]Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
at Anfield
Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...
.[ The treble, unprecedented in English football, was not forthcoming. Liverpool lost 2–1 in the FA Cup final at ]Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
to Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
, though Jones supplied the accurate long pass for Jimmy Case
James Robert Case (born 18 May 1954) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He gained national prominence with Liverpool in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Early life
Case was brought up in Allerton and was a dis ...
to score Liverpool's goal. However, Jones became the first Welshman to receive a European Cup winners medal when Liverpool won their first European Cup in Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
four days later, defeating Borussia Mönchengladbach
Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...
3–1.[ A memorable ]banner
A banner can be a flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms (but usually in a square or rectangular shape) is called a banner of arms. Also, ...
was unfurled by Liverpool supporters at the European Cup final in Rome which said ''"Joey Ate The Frogs Legs, Made The Swiss Roll, Now He's Munching Gladbach"''.[
Jones was in and out of the side the following year, with the renaissance of Tommy Smith and the emergence of young Scottish defender ]Alan Hansen
Alan David Hansen (born 13 June 1955) is a Scottish former footballer and BBC television football pundit. He played as a central defender for Partick Thistle, for the successful Liverpool team of the late 1970s and 1980s, and for the Scotl ...
severely reducing his first team opportunities. He left in the summer of 1978 after exactly 100 appearances, in which he scored 3 goals.[
]
Return to Wrexham
He returned to Wrexham[ in 1978 for £210,000, a record that stood as Wrexham's record signing until the £300,000 signing of Ollie Palmer in January 2022.
]
Chelsea
In 1982, Jones joined Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
for £34,000, having been signed by John Neal. Jones was sent off on his debut against Carlisle United
Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...
at Brunton Park
Brunton Park is a football stadium and the home of Carlisle United. It is situated in the city of Carlisle and has a certified capacity of 17,949. The ground opened in 1909. Brunton Park's grandstand burned down in 1953 and the stadium floode ...
. However, Jones's committed attitude and pre-match fist-clenching ritual eventually made him a cult hero among the fans. He also proved instrumental in Chelsea's successful battle to avoid relegation to the Third Division. He was a part of the side which romped to promotion as Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
champions in 1983–84. He remained with the club in the top flight for one more season, before surprisingly being sold to Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...
for £35,000 in August 1985. He finished his Chelsea career with 78 league appearances and 2 goals.
Huddersfield and third spell at Wrexham
He joined Huddersfield in the summer of 1985 from Chelsea, and was named Town's player of the year in his first season. After two seasons he left to re-join Wrexham, where he retired at the end of the 1991–92 season.
International career
Joey made his Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
debut in November 1975 against Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
. He went on to win 72 caps, scoring one goal,[ his last action coming in a friendly away to ]Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
in May 1986.
After retirement
Jones underwent heart surgery
Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to corr ...
in 2002 and has since scaled down his commitments with Wrexham, he works as the Under 18's and Reserve team coach. In 2001, he had a brief spell as caretaker manager between the departure of Brian Flynn Brian Flynn may refer to:
* Brian Flynn (footballer) (born 1955), Welsh football manager
* Brian Flynn (baseball) (born 1990), American baseball player
* Brian Flynn (cricketer) (1929-1986), Australian cricketer
* Brian Flynn (ice hockey)
Brian ...
and arrival of Denis Smith.
In 2005, Jones completed his autobiography entitled "Oh Joey, Joey!" about his life in football. This was a book of the week on Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British pay television, paid television sports news channel run by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast.
History
Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and lat ...
in February 2006.
Also in 2005, Jones was named as Wrexham's ultimate Cult Hero on BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. Jones is much respected by
and he finished in 63rd place in the 2006 poll of all-time favourite Liverpool players (
). 110,000 fans worldwide had taken part in the vote.