 Jones in 2010 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Clifford William Jones | ||
| Date of birth | (1935-02-07)7 February 1935 (age 90) | ||
| Place of birth | Swansea, Wales | ||
| Position | Winger | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1952–1958 | Swansea Town | 168 | (47) |
| 1958–1968 | Tottenham Hotspur | 318 | (135) |
| 1968–1970 | Fulham | 25 | (2) |
| 1970–1971 | King's Lynn | ||
| 1971 | Bedford Town | ||
| Total | 511 | (184) | |
| International career | |||
| 1954–1969 | Wales | 59 | (16) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Clifford William Jones (born 7 February 1935) is a Welsh formerfootballer. During his career, he played as awinger and was a crucial member ofTottenham Hotspur's1960–61double-winning side. He is now the last surviving player from theWelsh team in the1958 World Cup.
Jones was born on 7 February 1935 inSwansea,Glamorgan, to a footballing family. His fatherIvor; unclesShoni,Emlyn,Bryn andBert; brotherBryn; and cousinKen were also all players.[1] He was also a schoolboy friend ofTerry Medwin, who would later become his teammate at Tottenham Hotspur.[2] He was brought up in theSandfields area of Swansea, and attended St. Helens Mixed Junior School.[3] When he was eleven, he attended Oxford Street Secondary Modern, where he joined the school's football team.[4] When he was twelve, he was selected for the Swansea Schoolboys team, which he captained in 1950 and won the Welsh Shield andEnglish Schools Trophy.[4][5]
Jones was signed toBilly McCandless'Swansea Town in 1952 when he was 17, joining his brotherBryn who also played for the club. For a time at Swansea he also worked as an apprentice sheet metal worker in The Prince of Wales Dry Dock.[5] He made his debut in the League match againstBury in October 1952. He scored his first goal in the match againstLeeds United two games later. He started off as an inside forward, but moved to the left wing in the 1953–54 season.[6] He scored 47 goals in 168 league appearances for the club.[7] and 54 goal in 193 appearances in all competitions.[6]
.jpg)
Jones joinedTottenham Hotspur in February 1958 for a record £35,000 (equivalent to £1,032,844 in 2023).[8] He made his debut for the club on 22 February 1958 in the away match againstArsenal at Highbury.[9] For a while Jones didn't play at his best at Spurs, and he then broke a leg in a tackle withPeter Baker during pre-season training in the summer of 1958.[10][11] He returned to the team after his recovery in December 1958. He became a prolific goalscorer for the club, scoring 25 goals in all appearances in the 1959–60 season.[10]
Jones was a key member of the double-winning team of the1960–61 season, scoring 19 goals that season.[12] He was also part of the successful Spurs sides in the1962 FA Cup Final and1963 European Cup Winners Cup Final, and he also won a further medal as a non-playing substitute in the1967 FA Cup Final.[13][10] In 1962,Juventus offered a world-record fee of £125,000 (equivalent to £3,368,344 in 2023) to sign him but the offer was turned down.[14] Jones played on both wings at Tottenham; he played on the right wing in the Double-winning season, and on the left in the subsequent seasons.[10] He made his final appearance and scored his last goal for Tottenham in the match againstManchester United on 9 October 1968.[7] He remains one of the top scorers in the club's history, scoring 159 goals in 378 games (135 in 318 league games).[15][10]
Jones finally moved on fromWhite Hart Lane in 1968 in order to take up a position withFulham for two seasons. He scored twice in 25 league appearances for Fulham.[7] Afterwards, he played forKing's Lynn.[16] He made his debut for King's Lynn on 15 August 1970 againstRomford with his final game for the club againstDover Athletic making a total of 27 appearances and scoring 13 goals.[17] Jones then moved on and played forBedford Town,Wealdstone,Cambridge City thenWingate.[18]
Jones was called into the Welsh national side after playing only 25 times as a winger for Swansea. He made his senior debut playing against Austria in May 1954.[7] In his second appearance for the national side, he helped Wales beatEngland 2–1 atNinian Park on 22 October 1955, scoring the winning goal.[19]
Jones scored three goals in the1958 FIFA World Cup play-off in February 1958 against Israel to win 4–0 on aggregate, allowing Wales to qualify for the World Cup for the first time.[7] He played in all five of Wales' games at the 1958 World Cup, and helped Wales reach the quarter-final where they lost to Brazil, beaten by a goal fromPelé.[14] He made a total of 11 appearances for them inWorld Cup qualifiers between 1957 and 1968.[20] He played his final game for Wales in October 1968 in the World Cup qualifier against Italy. In total he played 59 times for Wales in 15 years, scoring 16 goals.[16]
Jones married his wife Joan in 1955 and they have four children, nine grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren.[5] Among Jones' grandsons are former footballerScott Neilson and football coachMatt Wells.[21]
After retiring from football, Jones taught PE and managed the school football team atHighbury Grove School in North London for 29 years, retiring in December 2000.[11] Next year in February 2025 he will be celebrating his 90th birthday at the Tottenham Stadium.
Jones has been inducted into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame as well as the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame. He was also inducted onto the Supporters' Trust Wall of Fame outside theLiberty Stadium. He received an Honorary Fellowship from theUniversity of Wales.[22]
Tottenham Hotspur
Wales
Media related toCliff Jones (Welsh footballer) at Wikimedia Commons
|  | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
