Full name Matthew Jones 1997–2000 Leeds United Playing position | Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) Place of birth Llanelli, Wales Name Matt Jones | |
 | ||
Date of birth (1980-09-01) 1 September 1980 (age 35) | ||
Matthew Jones (born 1 September 1980 in Llanelli, Wales) is a former Welsh international football player. He made his professional debut in the premier league for Leeds Utd and played his last professional game for his home town club Llanelli AFC in the Welsh Premier League. He has played centre-midfield for most of his career, though sometimes appeared at right back. He formerly played for Leeds United and Leicester City with an early ending loan spell at Nottingham forest. Matt is now coaching at the Swansea City football academy where he started his journey playing for the Swansea signets & centre of excellence back in 1990.
Contents
Playing career
Jones was born in Llanelli, Wales and joined the Leeds United Youth Academy in 1994 at the age of 14. Unable to establish himself as a first team regular he transferred to Leicester City in December 2000 for a fee of £3.5million. He scored only one league goal in his career, in a 2–1 home defeat to Middlesbrough on 17 September 2001.
Intended to be a replacement for Neil Lennon, his time with Leicester was littered with injuries. He spent a year out with a knee ligament injury received when tackling Gary McAllister in Liverpool's 1–0 win against Leicester in January 2002. In August 2003 he trained with Nottingham Forest, but on his return to Leicester three weeks later was ruled out, initially for four further months, with a back injury.
After numerous operations in a bid to recover Jones decided to retire in 2004 at the age of 23. His last international game for Wales was a 2–0 away defeat to USA in May 2003, receiving a red card during his 13th appearance.
Post football
Since his retirement Jones worked within the sports media including appearances for BBC Sport, Sky Sports and John Barnes Soccer Night and has both written a column on the BBC Sport website and been featured as part of the BBC Wales website Raise your game series.
In September 2007, Jones announced he would come out of retirement to play for Llanelli in the Welsh Premier League.
Jones featured sporadically for Llanelli over 2 seasons, making 23 league appearances, scoring one goal and contributing while studying for his coaching qualifications by winning the Welsh Premier league for the first time in the clubs history and furthering their success with a league cup final title completing the double that year. He has also added appearances in the Welsh Cup Final and the Champions League to his CV.