Jason Malcolm Wilcox (born 15 March 1971) is an English football coach, former professional footballer and director of football at

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

side

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. As a player, Wilcox was a

left winger 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 ...

from 1989 until 2006, notably in 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 ...

for

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 ...

, where he won the title in 1995. He also played in the top flight for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

and for

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 ...

in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. He retired following a brief stint in 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 ...

with

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is ...

. He made three appearances for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. After retiring from football, Wilcox was initially a co-commentator for

BBC Radio Lancashire BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Darwen Street in Blackburn. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly aud ...

before moving into coaching with Manchester City in 2012. He went on to become the academy director at Premier League side Manchester City, a post he held until 2023 when he joined Southampton.

Club career

Blackburn Rovers

Wilcox joined Blackburn Rovers at the age of sixteen after his father wrote to the club asking for a trial. After impressing at training on Sunday, Wilcox signed a contract on the Monday, before playing in the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. I ...

final only weeks after. Rovers youth-team manager Jim Furnell described him as "one of the best young midfielders in English football". Wilcox would go on to score 33 goals in over 300 games with Blackburn, whom he also captained. Wilcox was one of the only first-team players of that era who came from the club's own youth system and was not signed from other teams with the multimillion-pound investments of

Jack Walker Jack Walker (19 May 1929 – 17 August 2000) was a British industrialist and businessman. Walker built his fortune in the steel industry, amassing a personal fortune of £600 million. He then went on to become the owner and benefactor of Black ...

. He played an important part in the title-winning Blackburn team of 1995. Playing on the left flank with attacking fullback Graeme Le Saux behind him and

Stuart Ripley Stuart Edward Ripley (born 20 November 1967) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger from 1985 until 2002, notably in the Premier League for Blackburn Rovers and Southampton. He was part of the Rovers squad that won ...

on the opposite flank, they forged a strong attacking line-up with

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premi ...

and

Chris Sutton Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit and commentator for BT Sport, regularly working on their coverage of Scottish football. He is now also a pundit ...

. International recognition was harder to come by for Wilcox and he managed only 3 international caps despite his effective partnership with Shearer, Le Saux and

Tim Sherwood Timothy Alan Sherwood (born 6 February 1969) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1987 until 2005, notably as captain of Blackburn Rovers' Premier Leagu ...

. Lengthy injury problems restricted Wilcox's effectiveness in subsequent seasons and, after experiencing relegation with Blackburn, he moved on to Leeds United for £4 million in December 1999. With the club having just been relegated and with the emergence of

Damien Duff Damien Anthony Duff (born 2 March 1979) is an Irish professional football manager and former player who played predominantly as a winger. He has been the manager of League of Ireland club Shelbourne F.C. since November 2021. He began his prof ...

, Rovers saw it as good business for a successful youth product. He was Blackburn's longest serving player at the time of joining Leeds.

Leeds United

Wilcox, who scored on his debut, played in his usual position as a left-sided midfielder at Leeds, moving

Harry Kewell Harry Kewell (born 22 September 1978) is an Australian association football coach, manager and former player. His most recent role as a club manager was at English National League side Barnet, and he is currently a first team coach at Celtic ...

into a more advanced role. He helped the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

side to the semi-finals of the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

, where they lost to Galatasaray. A year later he was part of the club's run to the

UEFA Champions League 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 competi ...

semi-finals, where they lost again, this time to eventually consecutive runners-up

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

. Wilcox again suffered relegation, in 2004, as Leeds struggled with a large financial burden after failing to qualify for the Champions League, forcing the sale of several high-profile stars. He was released by Leeds in May 2004. Overall, he made 106 appearances for Leeds, scoring 6 goals.

Leicester City

In 2004, Wilcox signed on a free transfer with fellow relegated club Leicester on a one-year deal. He initially signed a one-year deal which was extended by another year in the summer of 2005. Wilcox made an excellent start to his Leicester career, but unfortunately picked up a horrific cruciate ligament injury in October 2004. It was feared it would end his season and maybe his career, but he returned in City's 3–1 win over

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

on 2 April 2005. He scored once for Leicester, in a 3–2 win over Sheffield United in September 2004. In May 2005, he signed a new one-year contract with Leicester. In November 2005, he joined

on a one-month loan.

Blackpool

On 28 January 2006, Wilcox joined

on a free transfer following a two-month spell on loan to the club, after his old Blackburn teammate Simon Grayson requested Wilcox join the club to help save them from relegation. He was released at the end of the season after a disagreement with other staff members.

International career

Wilcox won his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

in a 3–0 win over

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

in 1996. After a great debut, in which he hit the bar in the first minute, many tipped him to make the final squad for

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

; however, he was cut from the final squad of 22 players in what

Terry Venables Terence Frederick Venables (born 6 January 1943), often referred to as El Tel, is an English former football player and manager, and an author. During the 1960s and '70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queen ...

described as one of the toughest decisions of his career. He went on to play against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

: these turned out to be his only other full caps. Wilcox made the provisional squad for

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

but was replaced by

Gareth Barry Gareth Barry (born 23 February 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He made 653 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa, Manchester City, Everton and West Bromwich Albion, the highest number of ap ...

after an injury. He also made two appearances for the B team, against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Coaching career

Wilcox joined the

Manchester City 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 Salford to the west. The t ...

coaching staff in 2012 as an academy coach, a year later he made the step up to the U18's as their head coach and oversaw a national championship title and two

finals. In 2017 after a spell in the job on an interim basis he was appointed to the role of academy director. On 20 January 2023, Wilcox was appointed director of football at

. Wilcox joined Southampton in the summer after serving a notice period with City.

Personal life

Wilcox is a black belt in judo and even represented England before he became a professional footballer. When he reached the age of seventeen he was made to choose between the two sports, only being able to fully commit himself to one of them as a potential career path. After retiring from football, Wilcox took some time out from the game before joining the commentary staff of

for a year, as well as having his own weekly column in the ''

Lancashire Telegraph The ''Lancashire Telegraph'', formerly the ''Lancashire Evening Telegraph'', is a local tabloid newspaper distributed in East Lancashire, England. It is edited by Karl Holbrook. There are around twenty towns in the area, including Blackburn, B ...

''.

Honours

Blackburn Rovers *

: 1994–95

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcox, Jason Living people 1971 births Men's association football wingers English men's footballers England men's international footballers English male judoka England men's B international footballers Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Footballers from Bolton Manchester City F.C. non-playing staff Southampton F.C. non-playing staff