Jordan Lewis Jones (born 24 October 1994) is a 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 plays as a winger for

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

, on loan from

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

, and the

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

national team. Jones has previously played for

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartle ...

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

, Rangers,

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, St Mirren and

. He has also played for the

Northern Ireland national team The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Foo ...

, having made his full international debut in 2017.

Club career

Jones started as a youth player with his home-town club

. He made one appearance for the Middlesbrough first team, in a

2012–13 FA Cup The 2012–13 FA Cup was the 132nd season of the FA Cup, the main domestic cup competition in English football, and the oldest football knock-out competition in the world. It was sponsored by Budweiser for a second consecutive season, thus the com ...

tie against Hastings United. Jones was loaned to

in February 2015 and

in November 2015. He was released by Middlesbrough at the end of the 2015–16 season. Jones signed for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

club

in June 2016. In January 2018, Kilmarnock turned down an offer from Rangers to buy Jones for a reported £350,000 transfer fee. However, in January 2019 he signed a pre-contract agreement to join Rangers at the end of the 2018–19 season, and immediately

tweeted Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

a message expressing his delight at the "dream move" to the

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

club, which annoyed many Kilmarnock supporters as he would still be representing their team for several months, and only a point separated his current and future employers at the top of the

league table Standings or rankings are listings which compare sports teams or individuals, institutions, nations, companies, or other entities by ranking them in order of ability or achievement. A table or chart (such as a league table, a ladder or a leaderb ...

. Jones later admitted he had been "over-excited" in sending the message, while ''Killie'' manager

Steve Clarke ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

defended the player and confirmed he would have no hesitation in playing him while he remained with the

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

club. That backing was rewarded when Jones scored the winning goal in the next league fixture at

Rugby Park Rugby Park, also known as The BBSP Stadium Rugby Park for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium situated in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock. It was first used in 1899 and is the home of Kilmarnock F.C. Rugby Park has also been used for con ...

, against Rangers; the 2–1 result boosted Kilmarnock's title hopes while denting those of the ''Gers''.

Rangers

In June 2019 Jones said he wanted to be a first-team player at Rangers. He made his competitive debut for the club on 9 July 2019 in a 4–0 win over St Joseph's of Gibraltar in the

2019–20 UEFA Europa League The 2019–20 UEFA Europa League was the 49th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 11th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Sevilla defeated Inter Milan in the fina ...

. Jones scored his first Rangers goal on 27 September 2020 against

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

Fir Park Fir Park Stadium is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell and was the temporary home of Gretna for the 2007–08 SPL season. Mo ...

, the second in a 5–1 win. On 2 November 2020 it was announced that Jones and

George Edmundson George Edmundson (4 February 1848 – 3 July 1930) was a clergyman of the Church of England and academic historian of the University of Oxford. He took up benefices in Northolt and Chelsea and in retirement lived in the south of France. Early ...

had been suspended by Rangers, pending an internal investigation, for attending a party and breaching

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

regulations. On 29 January 2021, Jones joined English club

on loan for the remainder of the 2020–21 season. He scored his first goal for Sunderland on 27 February 2021 in a 2–2 draw against

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

Wigan Athletic

On 4 August 2021,

signed Jones from Rangers on a three-year deal. On 31 January 2022, Jones signed for St Mirren on loan until the end of the 2021–22 season. He was then loaned to

in July 2022. Wigan tried to recall him from the loan on 31 January 2023, but did not submit the paperwork before the deadline.

International career

Though born in England, Jones is able to represent

through his Northern Irish father. Aged 17, he represented their U19 team but turned down an opportunity to be part of the U21 squad. In September 2017, he was called up to the senior

squad for

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

qualifiers against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, but did not play in either game. He won his first senior cap for Northern Ireland in the 2018 World Cup Qualifying play-off second leg on 12 November 2017, coming on as a substitute, replacing

Jamie Ward Jamie John Ward (born 12 May 1986) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), striker for Ilkeston Town where he is player-manager. He has represented the Northern Ireland national footbal ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Northern Ireland's goal tally first.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Jordan Living people 1994 births Footballers from Middlesbrough Northern Ireland international footballers Northern Ireland youth international footballers English footballers English people of Northern Ireland descent Middlesbrough F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players St Mirren F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Professional Football League players Association football wingers