Vinnie Jones

Vincent Peter Jones (born 5 January 1965) is an English-born ex-footballer (and former captain of the Wales national football team). Jones is also a successful actor, famous for his scary and aggressive style of acting and very intimidating demeanour.

Football career

Jones was born in Watford to a father who worked as a gamekeeper. He started his football career at non-league Wealdstone in 1984, before moving to Wimbledon in 1986. He was part of the 'Crazy Gang' team that won the FA Cup in 1988, arguably the club's greatest achievement. He subsequently played for Leeds United, Sheffield United and Chelsea, before moving back to Wimbledon again in 1992. He played over 250 games for the Dons, before briefly becoming player/coach of QPR in 1998. When overlooked for the vacant post of manager of QPR, he announced his retirement from the game.

While a footballer, he became quickly infamous for his brutal "hard man" image, which frequently brought much criticism of his style of play. He was sent off 12 times in his career, and once was booked after only 3 seconds of play. In one notorious incident he distracted Paul Gascoigne by grabbing his 'goolies', ie:testicles.^[1] During another match, he ended the career of Tottenham defender Gary Stevens with a vicious tackle. However, during his season at Leeds United, he proved that he could prosper and play well without the illegal side of his game, and under the stewardship of Howard Wilkinson only received 3 yellow cards in the whole season.

He also was the presenter of the infamous Soccer's Hard Men video released in 1992, which featured archived footage of himself and many other "hard men" of the game, and included advice for budding "hard men". After the release of the video, Jones received a £20,000 fine from The FA for "bringing the game into disrepute." Despite this, Jones was gradually accepted into a league of his own for being notorious and controversial, dominating the "crazy gang" atmosphere that he had sparked within the Wimbledon club side during its rise to the top and Premiership years. Whilst frequently derided by experts for his clumsy level of skill, he was hugely popular with his team-mates and well regarded as an inspirational leader on the pitch.

A high point in his football career was when he was chosen to play international football for Wales. Despite his Welsh surname, the qualifying relationship was his grandfather on his mother's side, who came from Ruthin, north Wales. He earned eight caps and even captained the side. Although the selection was considered ironic, he was accepted enthusiastically by many Welsh supporters, at least until his conduct on the pitch in an international match got him into further trouble.

Vinnie has stated that he would eventually like to return to football, with it possibly being Leeds United he returns to football with. Jones told Yorkshire Radio "I will come back without a doubt, Leeds fans gave me so much and it's a club very close to my heart."^[2]