Jacques Roger Williams (born 25 April 1981) 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, rugb ...

who played as 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 ...

for

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

Football career

Williams was born in

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirra ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...

, and raised in France. He started his football career in the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...

, and played for the Bordeaux junior side which won the French under-18 championship. At the age of 18 he came to England with fellow French youngster Trésor Luntala for trials with

, and both players signed on free transfers before the 1999–2000 season. Williams represented England at under-18 level. He made his first-team debut for Birmingham in August 2000, playing once in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

and then three First Division matches, but his development was interrupted by the need for a

hernia A hernia is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. Various types of hernias can occur, most commonly involving the abdomen, and specifically the groin. Groin her ...

operation. Though he recovered sufficiently to resume playing

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

football, scoring the goals which put the team into the semifinal of the

Birmingham Senior Cup The Birmingham Senior Cup is a football competition for Birmingham County FA club teams, organised by the Birmingham County Football Association. It began in 1876 and is the oldest county cup competition still active. The Birmingham Senior Cup is ...

, a spate of injuries meant that those four games were all he played for Birmingham's first team before being released when his contract expired. He had a trial at

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 ...

, on the recommendation of former assistant manager

Brian Eastick Brian Eastick (born 27 January 1952) is an English football manager and former player. Eastick was technical director of Al Jazira, managed Newport County, and held various posts within the England coaching setup, including head coach of th ...

, then Academy Director at Birmingham, but no contract ensued. He joined

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

side Scarborough for the 2003–04 season, but sustained a broken rib and punctured lung in only his second game, complications from which meant a prolonged stay in hospital and three months out of football. Returning in November 2003, he played a further ten league games, but was only an unused substitute in the club's FA Cup fourth round match against

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 Fo ...

club

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 ...

, despite scoring and hitting the post in the preceding league game. He then injured an ankle, and was released at the end of the season. He spent the 2005–06 season with

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Assoc ...

club

Excelsior Virton Royal Excelsior Virton is a Belgian football club, based in the city of Virton, in Luxembourg province. The club will participate in Belgian National Division 1 from 2023–24 after relegation from Challenger Pro League in 2022–23. They wer ...

for whom he made three substitute appearances. In August 2006 he had a trial with

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

, scoring a goal in an 11–0 rout of French amateur side Racing Club Port du Havre, and making a promising substitute appearance in a 2–0 defeat against

Le Havre AC Le Havre Athletic Club (; commonly referred to as Le Havre) is a French association football club based in Le Havre, Normandy. The club was founded as an athletics and rugby club in 1872, making Le Havre AC the oldest professional French fo ...

, but manager Mark McGhee decided against signing him.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Jacques 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Wallasey English footballers Men's association football midfielders FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Birmingham City F.C. players Scarborough F.C. players R.E. Virton players Steel Azin F.C. players Tractor S.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Expatriate footballers in Iran