Saturday, March 28, 2015

Jermaine Jones

Jermaine Jones

For other people named Jermaine Jones, see Jermaine Jones (disambiguation).
Jermaine Jones
Jermaine Jones 2011-08-03.jpg
Jones at pre-season training with Schalke 04 in 2011.
Personal information
Full nameJermaine Junior Jones[1]
Date of birth3 November 1981 (age 33)
Place of birthFrankfurt am Main, West Germany
Height1.84 m (6 ft 12 in)[2]
Playing positionDefensive midfielder
Club information
Current team
New England Revolution
Number13
Youth career
1988–1994SV Bonames
1994–1995FV Bad Vilbel
1995–1999Eintracht Frankfurt
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1999–2004Eintracht Frankfurt II31(9)
1999–2004Eintracht Frankfurt46(7)
2004–2005Bayer Leverkusen II15(5)
2004–2005Bayer Leverkusen5(0)
2005→ Eintracht Frankfurt (loan)14(3)
2005–2007Eintracht Frankfurt24(2)
2007–2014Schalke 04129(7)
2011→ Blackburn Rovers (loan)15(0)
2014Beşiktaş10(0)
2014–New England Revolution10(2)
National team
2001–2003Germany U218(3)
2004Germany Team 20061(0)
2008Germany3(0)
2010–United States50(3)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23 November 2014.
† Appearances (Goals).
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 8 February 2015
Jermaine Junior Jones (born 3 November 1981) is a German-American soccer player who plays as a Central midfielder for the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer (MLS) and the United States National Team.
He has previously played for Eintracht FrankfurtBayer LeverkusenBlackburn RoversSchalke 04, and Beşiktaş.
He was born in Germany and represented them at U21 and senior level. However, he was not a regular in the team. As his father was an American, and Jones had not played a competitive match for Germany, he was eligible to represent the United States. He made his debut for them in 2010 and played at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, scoring a notable goal against Portugal.

Early life[edit]

Jones grew up in Frankfurt-Bonames. His father is an African American U.S. Army soldier who was stationed in West Germany. As a child, Jones lived in Chicago, Illinois and Greenwood, Mississippi, before his parents divorced and he returned to Germany with his mother.[3]

Club career[edit]

Early career[edit]

Jones started his youth career at SV Bonames, moving to FV Bad Vilbel in 1994, when he was thirteen.

Eintracht Frankfurt[edit]

In 1995, he was recruited by Eintracht Frankfurt to play in their academy. He spent the next five years learning and building the quality of his game, and made his first appearance in the Eintracht Frankfurt IIteam in the 2000–01 season making 25 appearances and scoring eight goals. He made the step up to the main squad in 2001. Jones made 46 appearances for the Frankfurt senior team over two years in the 2001–2003 seasons, scoring seven goals as he was primarily played as a central defensive midfielder.

Bayer Leverkusen[edit]

His good form at the time saw him purchased by Bayer Leverkusen. First team chances were scarce though, so he played the majority of the 2004–05 Bundesliga season for Bayer Leverkusen II.

Eintracht Frankfurt[edit]

Second spell; loan[edit]

Jones re-signed for Eintracht Frankfurt on loan, barely six months after signing for Bayer Leverkusen. He made fourteen appearances and scored three goals.

Third spell; permanent deal[edit]

Before the start of the 2005–06 season, he signed a permanent deal with the Hesse based team. However, during that season, Jones suffered a serious leg injury that required surgery, and was out of the game for eight months, only returning in the first half of the last game of the season. Over the next two seasons, Jones shed his "teen idol" image, and established himself as a quality player and became captain of the squad.
In March 2007, Jones announced on the official Eintracht bulletin board that he would not extend his contract expiring at the end of the 2006–07 season.[4] This enraged many Eintracht supporters, as Jones cancelled a contract negotiation with chairman Heribert Bruchhagen a few days before it was scheduled to take place. In October 2006, he already had defended himself for turning down a contract offer, underlining he wanted to stay after all the management of the Eagles had done for him during his injuries.[5] This led to him joining Schalke 04.

Schalke 04[edit]

Jones training with Ivan Rakitić in 2011.
The following three seasons at Schalke 04 were relatively mixed for Jones, with his career being hit further by injuries including a muscular hairline crack injury[clarification needed] which kept him out of the team for the majority of the 2009–10 season. However, he did enjoy his best stint playing regular games for the first time in his career playing 70 games in three seasons. The beginning of the 2010–11 season was again frustrating for Jones through lack of games, and after a falling out with team manager Felix Magath, he was sent to train with the reserves and made available for transfer.[6]

Blackburn Rovers (loan)[edit]

On 14 January 2011, it was revealed that English Premier League team Blackburn Rovers were interested in taking Jones on loan with a view to making the signing permanent at the end of the season. With Rovers playerVince Grella's time at Rovers blighted by regular injury, the club had been looking for a defensive addition for some time, and Jones was thought to be an excellent addition to a newly developed squad under new Rovers manager Steve Kean.[7] On 15 January, Kean confirmed a deal would take place in the next week.[8]
On 18 January 2011, it was confirmed by the club that Jones had signed on loan until the end of the season.[9] He made his Premier League debut on 23 January 2011, starting in a 2–0 home win over West Bromwich Albion atEwood Park and completed the full 90 minutes, receiving the man-of-the-match award on his first appearance for the club.[10] On 30 April 2011, Jones put in another man-of-the-match display, playing the full 90 minutes in the derby game against Bolton Wanderers in a 1–0 win at Ewood Park.[11][12] On 22 May 2011, against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, he completed the full 90 minutes in the last league match of the season in a 3–2 win for Rovers.[13] He made 15 Premier League starts for Rovers and picked up eight yellow cards in total, becoming a firm fans favourite in the process.

Return to Schalke 04[edit]

Following impressive performances with Blackburn, it was thought that he would extend his stay, but the two clubs could not agree a fee and he returned to Schalke 04 in July.[14] In 2011, Schalke 04 appointed a new manager Ralf Rangnick and the new coach announced that he would give Jones a chance to stay at the club and fight for his spot because his contract runs until 2014 and guarantees the midfielder €12 million.[15] Following his return from Blackburn, Jones became an integral part in defensive midfield and became an ever-present in the starting XI helping Schalke 04 fight for a Champions League berth and into the quarter finals of the Europa League against Athletic Bilbao.[16] In the club's second leg match against FC Twente in the Round of 16 on 15 March, Jones scored a goal and provided an assist for one of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's goals as Schalke 04 ran out 4–1 winners to overturn a 1–0 away defeat in the first leg.[17]
On 21 April 2012, Jones got in a training round bust up with Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar; the two traded blows and were then sent by general manager Horst Heldt to run extra laps around the pitch.[18] The following day in a match against Augsburg that finished 1–1, Jones was accused of cheating because of rolling on the ground and clutching his face following a high challenge that only nicked his hand;[19] his play acting was then compared to Rivaldo's infamous effort against Turkey at the World Cup in 2002.[19]The following weekend, on 28 April, Jones played 85 minutes in a 4–0 defeat of Hertha Berlin which certified Schalke's position in third spot and secured automatic qualification into the group stages of next year's Champions League.[20]
Jones appeared in the Bundesliga 20 times during the 2011–12 season, making his last appearance in a 3–2 win over Werder Bremen on the final day of the season, playing the full 90 minutes.[21] Following three games in the first two weeks of October in which Jones was a second-half substitute, two Bundesliga games and one Europa League fixture, Jones started every game in which he appeared, going the full 90 in almost all of them.[22]
After picking up a yellow card which would rule Jones out for the return leg, he netted a well taken equalizer in Schalke 04's 1–1 draw with Galatasaray in the Champions League Round of 16 clash on 20 February 2013.[23]

Beşiktaş[edit]

On 30 January 2014, he joined Turkish Süper Lig club Beşiktaş on a contract until the end of the season.[24]

New England Revolution[edit]

On 24 August 2014, Jones agreed to terms with Major League Soccer, becoming a designated player on a salary of $4.7 million for 18 months. MLS held a blind draw between Chicago Fire and New England Revolution to decide who would receive Jones' rights. New England won the draw, making Jones the fourth designated player in club history. He scored his first career MLS goal, a game-winner, against Sporting KC on 26 September 2014.[25] Jones and the New England Revolution made it to the MLS Cup 2014 in Carson, California, but lost to the LA Galaxy 2–1 after extra time.[26]

International career[edit]

Jones broke through into the Eintracht Frankfurt squad, became a German Under-21 international and briefly became a fan favourite in Frankfurt, somewhat due to his flashy outward appearance.
Jones playing for the United States in 2013
Though Jones played four matches with Germany's Under 21 team, he was often left out of the senior team, save a few friendlies[27] with mostly reserves. In June 2009, Jones declared to the media that he would be available to play for the United States after it was clear to him that the German national team manager, Joachim Löw, did not have any plans for him in the current German set-up. Jones was eligible based on a new FIFA ruling allowing players to switch their national teams if the player had not yet played in an official FIFA match with the senior team despite having played at the youth level. Jones was eligible for the United States due to his dual German and American nationality.[28] On 20 October 2009, Jones was cleared by FIFA to join the United States national team.[29] He first met with Bob Bradley and the national team during a March 2010 training camp and reportedly fit in "really well" according to Tim Howard.[30] In the end, Jones did not recover from injury in time for the World Cup.
On 4 August 2010, Jones was called into the United States squad for a 10 August friendly against Brazil.[31] The next day, however, he withdrew from the squad due to fitness concerns related to his injury from the previous season.[32] Jones was included on the roster for the US national team's friendlies against Poland and Colombia in October. He made his debut for the United States against Poland and assisted Jozy Altidore on the game's opening goal in the 13th minute.
On 19 June 2011, Jones scored his first international goal in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup against Jamaica. On 21 January 2012, he captained the side in the 1–0 win over Venezuela in a friendly match. On 26 May 2012, Jones scored his second international goal in a 5–1 victory over Scotland in a friendly match.[33]
On 16 June 2014, Jones made his FIFA World Cup debut by starting and playing 90 minutes in a 2–1 victory over Ghana. In the next group stage game, with the US down 1–0 against Portugal, Jones scored the equalizing goal with a curling strike from 25 yards out. The game ended in a 2–2 draw. Despite a 1–0 loss to Jones' native Germany in the final group stage match, the US advanced to the round of 16. The US were eventually eliminated in the knockout stage by Belgium 2–1.[34]

International goals[edit]

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
01.19 June 2011RFK StadiumWashington, D.C.United States Jamaica1 – 02–02011 CONCACAF Gold Cup
02.26 May 2012EverBank FieldJacksonvilleUnited States Scotland5 – 15–1Friendly
03.22 June 2014Arena da AmazôniaManausBrazil Portugal1 – 12–22014 FIFA World Cup

Personal life[edit]

He has been married to Sarah Gerthe since 2007. Together they have five children: Keanu, Liya-Joelle, Kenyon, Junius, and Jadee-Mae.[35]
He is a good friend of female soccer player and multiple national champion Steffi Jones, who is also a German-American dual national and the child of an African American soldier. They both played for the same club, SV Bonames, albeit not at the same time. The two are not related.

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