Matthew Robert Jones (born 11 May 1986) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the lead assistant coach of the Quinnipiac Bobcats. He spent his entire senior career in the United States and Portugal, where he made 145 appearances for Santa Clara, União da Madeira, Belenenses and Tondela in the latter's professional leagues. He also played a single

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

game for the Philadelphia Union.

Playing career

College and amateur

Born in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...

, Jones was a member of Port Vale's academy from the age of nine. He then played for West Bromwich Albion, making several

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

appearances from age 17–19. Jones moved to the United States in 2005, to attend and play college soccer at Sacred Heart University in

Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Connecticut, Trumbull, Easton, Connecticut, Easton, Weston, Connecticut, W ...

. He helped the team finish fourth in regular season of the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

, losing in the playoffs to eventual champions Monmouth University, 1–2. Jones was selected to the All-Northeast Conference second team, the NSCAA All-New England second team and was voted Male Rookie of the Year as a freshman in 2005, being picked to the All-Northeast Conference first team and the All-Mideast Region second team in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, he was awarded the "All Pioneer" honour on top of being a nominated in the final 30 of the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award in 2009; additionally, he was named NEC Scholar Athlete of the year in 2009, and graduated ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' with a GPA of 3.7 and a degree in

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Professional

Jones turned professional in 2009 with the Western Mass Pioneers. He made his professional debut on 25 April of that year in the side's 1–3 opening day away defeat against the Harrisburg City Islanders. Jones was signed by Portuguese team C.D. Santa Clara, before the start of the 2009–10 season. He immediately made himself first-choice at the second division club, going on to appear in 21 matches out of 30 in that first campaign. In June 2011, Jones went on trial with

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

side

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. However, nothing came of it, and he continued playing in Portugal's second level, successively representing

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

C.F. União Clube de Futebol União, commonly known as União da Madeira, was a Portuguese association football, football club based in Funchal, Madeira, notable for its six season in the Portuguese top-flight Primeira Liga, between the 1989–90 Primeira D ...

and C.F. Os Belenenses. Jones only missed one league game in 42 for the latter in the 2012–13 campaign, helping it return to the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

after three years. He made his debut in the competition on 18 August 2013, in a 0–3 home loss to Rio Ave FC. On 30 June 2015, Jones was loaned to top flight newcomers C.D. Tondela for the upcoming campaign. He made his competitive debut on 14 August, in a 1–2 home defeat to

Sporting Clube de Portugal Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

. On 9 February 2016, Jones was confirmed as the latest Philadelphia Union signing, arriving on a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

-long loan. He made his only

appearance on 1 June in a 3–2 home win over the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 cha ...

as Andre Blake was away with Jamaica at the Copa América Centenario; he had become a father days earlier. In April of the following year, he joined National Premier Soccer League club Elm City Express. He made his debut on 6 May, in a 2–0 win over Greater Lowell United FC.

Coaching career

On 30 March 2017, Jones was announced as assistant coach of the Quinnipiac Bobcats women's soccer team. He joined the staff of the men's team on 12 January 2018.

References

External links

Sacred Heart bio
* *
Quinnipiac profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Matt 1986 births Living people Footballers from Stoke-on-Trent English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Sacred Heart University alumni Major League Soccer players USL Second Division players USL Championship players Western Mass Pioneers players Philadelphia Union players Philadelphia Union II players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players C.D. Santa Clara players C.F. União players C.F. Os Belenenses players C.D. Tondela players English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Quinnipiac University people 21st-century English sportsmen Sacred Heart Pioneers athletes College men's soccer players in the United States Quinnipiac Bobcats men's soccer coaches High school soccer coaches in the United States Quinnipiac Bobcats women's soccer coaches