Ellis Raymond Jones (born 4 December 2003) is an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

USL League Two USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States, forming part of the United States soccer league system. The league will featu ...

club

Flint City Bucks Flint City Bucks is an American soccer team based in Flint, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1995, the team plays in USL League Two. The club was founded in 1995 as the Mid-Michigan Bucks, playing in Saginaw, and began playing in 1996. In 2 ...

and

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

for the

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the College athletics in the United States, athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I ...

. Jones began his career at

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

and played on

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

at Newcastle Town. He then joined American

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

side Oklahoma Christian Eagles before transferring to the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. During this time in college he also played for

FC Tucson FC Tucson is an American soccer club based in Tucson, Arizona that plays in USL League Two. The club has an amateur women's team, FC Tucson Women, that play in the WPSL. Organized in 2010, the club first fielded a team in March 2011, then joine ...

and the Flint City Bucks.

Career

Port Vale

Jones made his first-team debut for

at the age of 17 whilst still a second-year

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or Sports league, league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team (a ...

scholar, coming on as a

half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...

substitute for Brad Walker in a 1–0 win over

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

in an

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

group stage game at

Vale Park Vale Park is a football stadium in the area of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and it has been the home ground of Port Vale Football Club since its opening in 1950. It has a current capacity of 15,695, and was renovated durin ...

on 5 October 2021.

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Darrell Clarke Darrell James Clarke (born 16 December 1977) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played in the English Football League. He is the head coach of club Bristol Rovers ...

said that he had done well in the game and that "he earned it is debut I don't give them out for the sake of it. Some clubs do but I don't agree with that". He was then played in central defence by youth-team

Coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Billy Paynter William Paul Paynter (born 13 July 1984) is an English football manager and former footballer who was most recently the manager of club Connah's Quay Nomads. In a 17-year professional career in the English Football League, he played as a strik ...

"to help him develop with more time on the ball", and was also given the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

's armband in youth-team games. On 19 March 2022, Jones joined

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

Division One West side Newcastle Town on

. He played a total of five games for Newcastle. He was not offered a professional

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

when his youth-team contract expired in June 2022.

Alvechurch

Jones signed with Southern League Premier Division Central club

Alvechurch Alvechurch ( ) is a large village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Bromsgrove (district), Bromsgrove district in northeastern Worcestershire, England, in the valley of the River Arrow, Worcestershire, River Arrow. The Lickey H ...

, making three starts and four substitute appearances during the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season.

United States

Jones travelled to the United States and joined the Oklahoma Christian Eagles and Lady Eagles whilst studying Business at

Oklahoma Christian University Oklahoma Christian University (OC) is a private Christian university in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was founded in 1950 by members of the Churches of Christ. History Oklahoma Christian University, originally named Central Christian College, ...

. He was named the Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year, First Team All-Conference, and All-Freshman team and became the first Oklahoma Christian men's soccer player to earn First Team All-South Central Region honours at the Division II level. He joined

in May 2024. On 4 January 2025, he transferred to the

Style of play

Jones is a central

, though can also play at

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Career statistics

References

External links

Wisconsin profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Ellis 2003 births Living people Footballers from Wednesbury English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Men's association football central defenders Port Vale F.C. players Newcastle Town F.C. players Alvechurch F.C. players Oklahoma Christian Eagles men's soccer players FC Tucson players Wisconsin Badgers men's soccer players Flint City Bucks players Northern Premier League players Southern Football League players English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in the United States 21st-century English sportsmen