Joseph Patrick Jones (born 4 March 1955) is a Welsh former international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

full-back who most notably played for

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, with whom he won two European Cups.

Club career

Wrexham

Jones was born in

Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Penrhyn Bay, Craig ...

, and joined

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 ...

in 1971. He made his debut at the age of 17 in a

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the mo ...

tie against local rivals Chester City; Wrexham lost 1–0. He did, however, win the Welsh Cup with the club in 1975, when they beat

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

in the final. Jones established himself as a right-back and helped Wrexham to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1974, the first time the club had reached that stage.

Liverpool

Jones left Wrexham to join his boyhood heroes, Liverpool (he had a Liverbird

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, which he later had removed for medical reasons, on his forearm), when

Bob Paisley Robert Paisley OBE (23 January 1919 – 14 February 1996) was an English professional football manager and player who played as a wing-half. He spent almost 50 years with Liverpool and is regarded, due to his achievements with the club, ...

paid £110,000 for his services in July 1975. He made his debut on 16 August in a 2–0 league defeat to

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...

. He missed out on a league championship medal in 1975–76, as he did not play enough matches to qualify. In 1977 left back Jones was part of the treble-chasing

team which won the League championship and reached the finals 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 compet ...

and

European Cup 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 competit ...

. Jones scored his first goal for the club on 9 November 1976 in the 5–1 league thrashing of

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 ...

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892 ...

. The treble, unprecedented in English football, was not forthcoming. Liverpool lost 2–1 in the FA Cup final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

Manchester United 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 ...

, though Jones supplied the accurate long pass for

Jimmy Case James Robert Case (born 18 May 1954) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He gained national prominence with Liverpool in the 1970s and early 1980s. Early life Case was brought up in Allerton and was a dis ...

to score Liverpool's goal. However, Jones became the first Welshman to receive a European Cup winners medal when Liverpool won their first European Cup in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

four days later, defeating

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional football club based in Mönchengladbach, Nort ...

3–1. A memorable

banner A banner can be a flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms (but usually in a square or rectangular shape) is called a banner of arms. Als ...

was unfurled by Liverpool supporters at the European Cup final in Rome which said ''"Joey Ate The Frogs Legs, Made The Swiss Roll, Now He's Munching Gladbach"''. Jones was in and out of the side the following year, with the renaissance of Tommy Smith and the emergence of young Scottish defender

Alan Hansen Alan David Hansen (born 13 June 1955) is a Scottish former footballer and BBC television football pundit. He played as a central defender for Partick Thistle, for the successful Liverpool team of the late 1970s and 1980s, and for the Scotla ...

severely reducing his first team opportunities. He left in the summer of 1978 after exactly 100 appearances, in which he scored 3 goals.

Return to Wrexham

He returned to Wrexham in 1978 for £210,000, a record that stood as Wrexham's record signing until the £300,000 signing of

Ollie Palmer Oliver James Palmer (born 21 January 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Wrexham. Early life and education Born in Epsom, Surrey, Palmer supported Wimbledon as a child, for whom his grandfather Tony Wr ...

in January 2022.

Chelsea

In 1982, Jones joined

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 ...

for £34,000, having been signed by John Neal. Jones was sent off on his debut against

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Park s ...

Brunton Park Brunton Park is a football stadium and the home of Carlisle United. It is situated in the city of Carlisle and has a certified capacity of 17,949. The ground opened in 1909. Brunton Park's grandstand burned down in 1953 and the stadium floode ...

. However, Jones's committed attitude and pre-match fist-clenching ritual eventually made him a cult hero among the fans. He also proved instrumental in Chelsea's successful battle to avoid relegation to the Third Division. He was a part of the side which romped to promotion as

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 ...

champions in 1983–84. He remained with the club in the top flight for one more season, before surprisingly being sold to

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

for £35,000 in August 1985. He finished his Chelsea career with 78 league appearances and 2 goals.

Huddersfield and third spell at Wrexham

He joined Huddersfield in the summer of 1985 from Chelsea, and was named Town's player of the year in his first season. After two seasons he left to re-join Wrexham, where he retired at the end of the 1991–92 season.

International career

Joey made his

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

debut in November 1975 against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He went on to win 72 caps, scoring one goal, his last action coming in a friendly away to

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in May 1986.

After retirement

Jones underwent heart surgery in 2002 and has since scaled down his commitments with Wrexham, he works as the Under 18's and Reserve team coach. In 2001, he had a brief spell as caretaker manager between the departure of Brian Flynn and arrival of Denis Smith. In 2005, Jones completed his autobiography entitled "Oh Joey, Joey!" about his life in football. This was a book of the week on

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in February 2006. Also in 2005, Jones was named as Wrexham's ultimate Cult Hero on BBC TV's

Football Focus ''Football Focus'' is a BBC television magazine programme launched in 1974 covering football, normally broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. From the 2009–10 season to the 2020–21 season Football Focus ...

. Jones is much respected by Liverpool supporters and he finished in 63rd place in the 2006 poll of all-time favourite Liverpool players (

100 Players Who Shook The Kop Liverpool Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside, who currently play in the Premier League. They have played at their current home ground, Anfield, since their foundation in 1892. Liv ...

). 110,000 fans worldwide had taken part in the vote.

Honours

;

(1): 1974–75 ;

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

(1): 1976–77 *

(2): 1976–77, 1977–78 *

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 ...

(1): 1975–76 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

(1):

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

;

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 ...

(1): 1983–84

References

External links

Hall of fame at http://world.wrexhamafc.co.uk

Happy Faces Children's Charity Patron
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Joey 1955 births Living people Welsh footballers Wales international footballers Wales under-23 international footballers Wrexham A.F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. managers Welsh football managers Liverpool F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players English Football League players People from Llandudno Sportspeople from Conwy County Borough Association football defenders UEFA Champions League winning players UEFA Cup winning players FA Cup Final players