'Jones was a fierce competitor and loveable character'

BBC News

22-07-2025

Legendary former Wales, Liverpool and Wrexham defender Joey Jones, who has died at the age of 70, was a fierce competitor and loveable character, a humble hero to fans of every team he represented.A European Cup and league title winner with Liverpool in 1977, Jones spent most of his career with Wrexham and also played for Chelsea and Huddersfield Town.He made 72 appearances for Wales and, at the time of his retirement from international football in 1986, was his country's most capped player.After retiring from playing Jones coached and managed Wrexham, where he first played as a professional.Jones' lean frame and pipe-cleaner legs made him an unlikely hard man, but his uncompromising, tough-tackling style made him a scourge of attackers.His trademark clenched-fist salute also made him a firm favourite with supporters wherever he played.Brought up in Llandudno, Jones joined Wrexham in 1971 at the same time as another youngster from the north Wales coast who would become a great friend, Mickey Thomas.
Jones' first spell at Wrexham saw the club flourish under John Neal and claim many notable FA Cup wins.His performances persuaded Liverpool manager Bob Paisley to sign the boyhood Reds fan for £110,000 in July 1975.Liverpool supporters memorably unfurled a banner before the 1977 European Cup final against Borussia Monchengladbach, their team having already beaten Saint Etienne and FC Zurich.It read: "Joey Ate The Frogs Legs, Made The Swiss Roll, Now He's Munching Gladbach."Jones told BBC Wales in 2014: "It was made by a couple of fans who I really respected and I think as much of that banner as I do of the medal."To make a banner about myself, when there were such great players in Liverpool football club, made me feel 10ft tall."Chelsea fans speak fondly of his efforts to keep the club from falling into the old Third Division during the1982-83 season and helping them win the Second Division a year later.He had been signed by his former Wrexham boss Neal and was reunited with old Robins team-mate Eddie Niedzwiecki as well as his old friend Thomas.
Liverpool supporters ranked him in the top 100 players to play at Anfield and he was voted player of the year by Huddersfield fans in 1986.And the feeling was mutual."I happen to believe, quite honestly, that the supporters are the most important people at any club," Jones said."Without them, there is no game and no job."His 100 games for the great Liverpool team of the late 1970s and 91 appearances for a struggling and then resurgent Chelsea pale alongside his commitment to Wrexham.Having first played for the north Wales club in 1971, Jones finally retired in 1992 having made 376 league appearances in three spells.Afterwards he served as a first team, reserve and youth coach, and filled in as caretaker manager following the departure of Brian Flynn in 2001.Despite having heart surgery in 2002, Jones made a full recovery and continued in a full-time role working with the club's youth teams until he stepped down in 2017.
For Wales, for whom he made his debut against Austria in 1975, he was in teams that narrowly missed out on qualification for the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups.His international career spanned the changeover from the teams of John Toshack and Terry Yorath to the one of Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and Neville Southall.The only goal for his country came in an extraordinary 4-4 draw away in Yugoslavia in December 1983 which he later characteristically described as "a magnificent 25-inch drive".
Off the field Jones was as funny as he was tough on it.Wales missed out on the 1982 World Cup finals, their hopes were ended with defeat in the Soviet Union and Jones was given the runaround by Oleg Blokhin, the Ballon d'Or winner in 1975.A reporter informed Jones after the game that Blokhin's mother had been a notable champion pentathlete and that his father was a competitive sprinter.Jones was quick in his reply: "Oh yeah? Well my dad's a hospital porter and my mam's a cleaner, what chance did I have of catching him?"A true character of the game, his place in his country's football history is assured - the first Welshman to win a European Cup winner's medal.But his popularity with Wrexham fans - he was voted their all-time cult hero by Football Focus viewers in 2005 - will endure even in the club's 'Hollywood' era.