Keith Aubrey Jones (born 14 October 1965) is an English retired 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 ...

, best remembered for his time 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 ...

in the Football League with Brentford and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

. He also played for

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

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 ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

and was capped by England at

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

level. He later became a youth and women's coach.

Club career

Chelsea and Brentford (1983–1991)

, Jones began his 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 ...

and made his senior debut in a 3–0

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 ...

defeat to Barnsley on 26 March 1983. After one further appearance late in the 1982–83 season, he returned to the youth team and would not appear again until 1984–85, by which time the Blues had been promoted to the First Division. Injuries allowed Jones to break through into the team in September 1984 and he remained a squad player until September 1987, when he dropped down to the Third Division to join Brentford for a tribunal-fixed fee of £40,000. By the beginning of the 1988–89 season, Jones had been appointed club captain and was a part of the Bees teams which reached the sixth round of the 1988–89

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 the 1991 Third Division play-off semi-finals. His efforts during the

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

season were recognised with his inclusion in the Third Division PFA Team of the Year. In October 1991, a contract dispute with manager Phil Holder saw Jones transfer to Second Division

for a tribunal-fixed fee of £175,000.

Southend United, Charlton Athletic and Reading (1991–2002)

Despite making over 100 appearances for the club, Jones' four years with Southend United yielded little success on the pitch and he transferred to First Division rivals

for a £150,000 fee in September 1994. In just under six years at The Valley, he was a part of two teams which won promotion to 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 Fo ...

– the first in 1998 after victory in the First Division play-off final and the second two years later, when the club won the First Division title. Jones was transfer-listed in May 2000 and signed a two-year contract with Second Division club

on a free transfer on 1 July 2000. Now the twilight years of his career, Jones was utilised as a squad player and was a part of the team which won automatic promotion to the First Division on the final day of the 2001–02 season. He was released in May 2002 and retired from football.

International career

Jones was capped by England at schoolboy and

level.

Coaching career

Jones began his coaching career in 2000, while still a player. He coached at Chelsea and Tooting & Mitcham United, before moving to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 2006 to coach Atlanta Silverbacks Women. Jones moved to

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

youth club SC del Sol in 2009.

Career statistics

Honours

As a player

Charlton Athletic * Football League First Division: 1999–2000 * Football League First Division play-offs: 1997–98 Reading *

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 t ...

second-place promotion: 2001–02 Individual * PFA Football League Third Division Team of the Year:

* Football League Young Eagle of the Month: December 1984

As a manager

Atlanta Silverbacks Women *

USL W-League The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

Central Conference: 2007 * USL W-League Atlantic Division: 2007

As an individual

* USL W-League Coach of the Year: 2007

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Keith 1965 births Living people Brentford F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Chelsea F.C. non-playing staff English men's footballers Footballers from the London Borough of Southwark People from Dulwich Premier League players Reading F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Men's association football midfielders English Football League players England men's youth international footballers English expatriates in the United States Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States English women's football managers Black British sportsmen