Stephanie Ann Jones (born 22 December 1972) is a German-American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former player who last managed the German women's national team. As a defender, she earned 111 caps for the national team between 1993 and 2007, helping her country win the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup and three consecutive European Championships. After retiring from active football, Jones worked as a football administrator, in charge of organising the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for List of women's national association football teams, women's national association football, football teams. It was held from 26 June to ...

in Germany, before becoming a manager.

Playing career

Club

Jones started playing football at the age of four. From 1979 to 1986, she played in mixed youth teams for SV Bonames in Frankfurt. In 1986, she joined the girls' team of SG Praunheim, and moved to the club's women's team in 1988. In 1991, Jones moved to

FSV Frankfurt Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt and known as simply Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hessen and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt ...

, and subsequently changed teams almost every year until she joined 1. FFC Frankfurt in 2000. In 2002, she joined Washington Freedom to play in WUSA for two years before returning to Frankfurt. Jones ended her career as a player on 9 December 2007.

International

Jones' first cap for the German national team was in 1993, during the third-place match of the UEFA Women's Championship against Denmark, which Germany lost. From 1997, she won three consecutive European Championships and a bronze medal at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

. Jones was also part of the squad that won the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup; she suffered a rupture of her

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint, wrist joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in ...

in the third game of the tournament and was sidelined for six months. She won Olympic bronze for the second time at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. Jones announced the end of her international career on 26 March 2007. She finished her career with nine goals in 111 caps.

Coaching and administration

Post-retirement, Jones served as president of the organisation committee of the

, held in Germany. She subsequently obtained her coaching license at the German Sport University Cologne. After serving as assistant manager of the national team under Silvia Neid, Jones assumed the position of head coach in August 2016. She was released on 13 March 2018.

Personal life

A dual German and American citizen, Jones is the daughter of a German mother and an African-American father. Her father was a soldier stationed in West Germany; he left the family early in her life to return to the United States. Jones was raised by her single mother in a working-class neighborhood in Frankfurt. One brother, Christian, has struggled with drug addiction; another brother, Frank, served as an American soldier in Iraq and lost both legs in an assault in 2006. Jones entered a registered partnership with her girlfriend, Nicole, in June 2014. She had come out publicly as a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

in February 2013. Jones' autobiography, ''Der Kick des Lebens'' (''The Kick of Life''), was released in August 2007. In 2021, she featured in ', a documentary detailing the experiences of

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

players in German professional football.

International goals

Managerial record

''As of 4 March 2018.''

Honours

Personal

*11 June 2006: DE-HE Der Hessische Verdienstorden BAR

Hessian Order of Merit "for many years of voluntary services as patron of the Ballance 2006 – Integration und Toleranz für eine friedliche Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft projectHessische Staatskanzlei: ''Hessischer Verdienstorden für Steffi Jones''
; Pressemitteilung vom 11. Juni 2006

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Steffi 1972 births Living people German women's footballers FIFA Women's Century Club Germany women's international footballers Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Footballers from Frankfurt Washington Freedom (soccer) players German people of African-American descent Eintracht Frankfurt (women) players American people of German descent SC 07 Bad Neuenahr players FSV Frankfurt (women) players Frauen-Bundesliga players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Women's association football defenders African-American LGBTQ people American lesbian sportswomen German lesbian sportswomen German LGBTQ footballers FIFA Women's World Cup–winning players Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Germany women's national football team managers German women's football managers Olympic footballers for Germany UEFA Women's Championship–winning players Female association football managers African-American soccer players American LGBTQ soccer players American women's soccer players 21st-century African-American sportswomen 20th-century African-American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen 1. FFC 08 Niederkirchen players Women's United Soccer Association players West German women's footballers German sports executives and administrators 21st-century American sportswomen 21st-century German sportswomen