Ritchie Jones

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Ritchie Jones
Personal information
Full name	Richard Jones
Date of birth	September 26, 1986 (age 20)
Place of birth	Manchester, England
Height	1.83 m
Nickname	Ritchie
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Barnsley (on loan from Manchester United)
Number	10
Youth clubs
1995-2004	Manchester United
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2004- 2005-2006 2006 2007	Manchester United → Royal Antwerp (loan) → Colchester United (loan) → Barnsley (loan)	6 (0) 4 (2) 6 (0) 2 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:32, 24 March 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

For other people named Richard Jones, see Richard Jones.

Richard "Ritchie" Jones, (born September 26, 1986 in Manchester) is an English football player. He is a midfielder, and joined Manchester United as a junior. He mainly plays in the centre of midfield but can also play comfortably on the wing or centre half and even full back. He has yet to make his Premier League debut, though has made league starts for Colchester United in his brief loan spell there.

Contents 1 Younger career 2 Senior debut 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Younger career

Jones has played for the Manchester United F.C. Academy since the age of nine. Jones captained Uniteds youth cup team and was part of the Uniteds reserve side which won four trophies in 2004/05, and three trophies in 2005/06. The first time ever a United reserve team has won back to back titles.

Ritchie has also played for England at U15, U16, U17 (scoring the winning goal for the side in the Nordic Championship final in Sweden), U18, U19 and U20 levels. He was a member of the England Under-19 squad which reached the final of the European Under-19 Football Championship in July 2005, before losing out to France. He acted as captain during some of these matches.

[edit] Senior debut

Jones made his senior debut with United on October 26, 2005 in a Carling Cup game. Jones also was substitute in a Champions league game against French team Lille OSC away. This was followed by a place on the bench against Aston Villa in the Premiership then another appearance against Birmingham away in the League Cup.

His next appearance was in a highly emotional night against West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford, when he came on for the last half hour and almost scored in a game that was dedicated to the late George Best. His last appearance before going on loan for match experience was against Burton Albion away which ended goalless. Jones was extremely unlucky not to win the game with a last minute volley which the keeper Saul Deeney saved with his foot. In the 2004-05 season Ritchie played for United's reserve side in the Pontins League, and in the Premier Reserve League, both of which United won. His goals also helped United get to the finals of 2 cup competitions.

Ritchie was on loan to Manchester United's 'feeder' club, Belgian second division club Royal Antwerp, to increase his experience of first team matches. After playing 4 games for Antwerp his loan spell was cut short to provide cover in an injury-plagued United midfield.

His contract at Manchester United was extended by two years in June 2006, and will now not expire until the summer of 2008. The start of season 2006-07 Jones made two more first team appearances. They were pre season games against Preston North End and Macclesfield Town in which he was credited with an assist to enable Wayne Rooney to score.

Since then, he has appeared in more League Cup games, more recently the 2-1 win against Crewe Alexandra in which his cross set up Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to score United`s first goal.

In October 2006 he was loaned to Colchester United to help provide cover for injuries at the Championship club following their game at Coventry for the short time of just one month, though he expressed his desire to stay at the club. His performances earned him praise from the Colchester United Manager Geraint Williams saying Jones was a credit to his club. ^[1]

In February 2007, he joined fellow Manchester United youngster Adam Eckersley on loan at Barnsley until the end of the 2006-07 season. Ritchie was given the number 10 shirt.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ritchie Jones career stats at Soccerbase

Barnsley F.C. - Current Squad
1 Colgan | 2 Hassell | 3 Heckingbottom | 4 P. Reid | 5 Nyatanga | 7 Togwell | 8 Hayes | 9 Ferenczi | 10 Jones | 11 Howard | 13 Rajczi | 14 Austin | 15 Kay | 16 Eckersley | 18 K. Reid | 19 Tonge | 20 Williams | 21 Richards | 22 Letheren | 23 Nardiello | 24 Coulson | 25 Devaney | 28 Joynes | 30 McCann | 31 Atkinson | 36 Lucas | 37 Mattis | Manager: Davey