Michael Jordan Williams (born 6 November 1995) is a Welsh 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 ...
who plays for
League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
club
Bolton Wanderers. He can play either
central midfield or
centre-back.
Club career
Liverpool
Williams joined
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
academy at U14 level, having previously been playing for
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 ...
.
On 23 September 2014, he made his first-team debut in a
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 ...
clash against
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 ...
, coming on as a substitute in 79th minute for
Jordan Rossiter
Jordan Bernard Rossiter (born 24 March 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bristol Rovers.
Rossiter came through the academy at his local club Liverpool where they described him as an "authoritative central ...
. Williams scored in the penalty shootout. He was an unused substitute in the game against
AFC Wimbledon in the third round 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 against
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
in a quarter-final of the same tournament, as well as
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 ...
games against
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...
and
Manchester City and a
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...
clash against Turkish side
Beşiktaş J.K. On 22 January 2015, he signed his first professional contract, signing a -year deal with Liverpool.
In 2015 Williams picked up an injury so bad he was nearly forced to retire, however after being the first Welsh footballer to undergo a cartilage transplant he was able to recover and continue his career.
In the 2016–17 season, Williams returned from his injury and was featured for the
Liverpool U23 side. He did appear as an unused substitute in a FA Cup fourth round replay against
Plymouth Argyle, which saw Liverpool win 1–0. In January transfer window of 2017, Williams was expected to leave the club on a permanent basis, with
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 ...
and
MK Dons
Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. ...
were among interested. Although the move never happened, Williams stayed at the club for the rest of the season; eventually, signing a contract extension.
He was released by Liverpool at the end of the 2017-18 season.
Loan spells
On 26 March 2015, Williams was loaned out to
Notts County
Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...
. He made his Notts County debut, where he started the whole game, in a 2–2 draw against
Scunthorpe United on 28 March 2015. He went on to make eight appearances for the side, as Notts County were relegated to League Two next season. He returned to his parent club at the end of the 2014–15 season.
On 10 July 2015, he joined
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...
on a season-long loan. Williams made his Swindon Town debut in the opening game of the season, where he set up a goal for
Nathan Byrne
Nathan William Byrne (born 5 June 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays for Charlotte FC. He can play as either a wing back or a right-back.
Byrne began his professional career with Tottenham but never made a first team appear ...
, who went on to score a hat–trick, in a 4–1 win over
Bradford City
Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes.
...
. He started out in the midfield position before moving to the defence position. However, he suffered a knee injury that saw him sidelined for the most of the season. Although he returned to training in early–2016, Manager
Martin Ling
Martin Ling (born 15 July 1966) is an English football manager and former player currently director of football for Leyton Orient. He played in over 100 Football League matches for each of Exeter City, Southend United, Swindon Town and Leyto ...
hinted about terminating his loan with Swindon Town last month, though he resigned as Manager that month. After cutting his loan spell with the club in February 2016 to allow Williams to heal from his knee injury, he went on to make ten appearances for Swindon Town.
On 31 August 2017, Williams was loaned to
Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
until 1 January 2018. He made his Rochdale debut, where he started the whole game and played with
teammate with the same name, in a 0–0 draw against
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 ...
on 2 September 2017. In the
EFL Trophy Group Stage against
Bury
Bury may refer to:
*The burial of human remains
*-bury, a suffix in English placenames
Places England
* Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village
* Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire
** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
, Williams set up a goal for
Ian Henderson to score the fourth goal, in a 4–0 win on 19 September 2017. He went on to make 14 appearances for Rochdale before suffering an injury that ended his loan spell at the club.
Rochdale
On 14 June 2018, he joined
Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
on a permanent deal, signing a two-year contract.
Williams' first game after signing for the club on a permanent basis came in the opening game of the season against
Burton Albion
Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home grou ...
, where he started the whole game, in a 2–1 win for Rochdale. A 4–0 loss against
Barnsley on 21 August 2018 included three players by the name of Jordan Williams, with two of them at Rochdale and
one at Barnsley.
Blackpool
Williams joined
Blackpool on 24 August 2020, signing a one-year contract with the option for a further year.
Bolton Wanderers
On 1 February 2021, Williams joined
League Two
The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...
side
Bolton Wanderers on an 18-month contract. His debut came on 9 February in a 1–1 draw against
Morecambe. Bolton finished the season in third, winning promotion to
League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
and Williams revealed there was a clause in his contract which would extend it by another year if he made a certain amount of appearances in League One during the 2021–2022 season and 5 November his contract was extended to 2023.
On 9 April 2022, he scored the first league goal of his career when finding the net for Bolton in the 90th minute of a 1-1 draw with
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...
at the
University of Bolton Stadium
The University of Bolton Stadium is the home ground of Bolton Wanderers F.C. in Horwich, Greater Manchester, England.
Opening in 1997, it was named the Reebok Stadium, after club sponsors Reebok. In 2014, Bolton Wanderers signed a naming rig ...
. The only other goal of his career had come 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 ...
for
Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
away at
Newcastle United in January 2020.
International career
Having previously featured for the
Wales U17 side, Williams made his
Wales under-21 debut in a 1–1 draw against
Lithuania on 9 September 2014.
In August 2015, Williams was called up to the
Wales senior squad for the first time. He was an unused substitute in the 1–0 win over
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
on 3 September 2015.
Personal life
Williams was born in
Bangor, North Wales. He is a fluent
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
speaker, and attended Welsh-medium school Ysgol y Garnedd.
In March 2016, during a
Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...
match between
Manchester United and Liverpool at
Old Trafford, a
tweet was sent from Williams' Twitter account which was construed by many as mocking the
Munich air disaster. Williams at the time claimed that his Twitter account had been hacked, he apologised and deleted his account. He was later interviewed about the incident and revealed the anguish the incident had caused him and that he had thought "that Tweet could have finished me in football". He explained that he had not intended to reference the Munich air disaster but that it was a reference he and his friends had regularly made about "flying" when doing well. He admitted that his claim that his account had been hacked was borne from a naive panic and was not true.
Career statistics
;Notes
Honours
Bolton Wanderers
*
EFL League Two third-place (promotion):
2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
Soccerbase: League Two 2020/21 Table
/ref>
References
External links
Liverpool F.C. profile
LFC History Profile
Welsh FA Profile
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, MJ
1995 births
Living people
Footballers from Bangor, Gwynedd
Welsh footballers
Wales youth international footballers
Wales under-21 international footballers
Association football midfielders
Liverpool F.C. players
Notts County F.C. players
Swindon Town F.C. players
Rochdale A.F.C. players
Blackpool F.C. players
Bolton Wanderers F.C. players
English Football League players