Jason Malcolm Wilcox (born 15 July 1971) is an English football executive, coach, and former professional footballer. He is currently serving as the Director of Football at

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

. As a player, Wilcox was a

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

from 1989 until 2006, notably in the

for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, where he won the title in 1995. He also played in the top flight for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

and for

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

. He retired following a brief stint in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

with

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

. He made three appearances for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. After retiring from football, Wilcox was initially a co-commentator for

BBC Radio Lancashire BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. Originally launched as BBC Radio Blackburn, in 1981 it expanded to cover the whole county and was renamed BBC Radio Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB ...

before moving into coaching with

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

in 2012. He went on to become the academy director at Premier League side Manchester City, a post he held until 2023 when he joined

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. He left Southampton in April 2024 to join Manchester United.

Early life

Jason Malcolm Wilcox was born in 1971 in

Farnworth Farnworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southeast of Bolton, 4 miles south-west of Bury (7 km), and northwest of Manchester. Within the historic county of Lancashire, Farnworth lies on ...

, Lancashire.

Club career

Blackburn Rovers

Wilcox joined Blackburn Rovers at the age of sixteen after his father wrote to the club asking for a trial. After impressing at training on Sunday, Wilcox signed a contract on the Monday, before playing in the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

final only weeks after. Rovers youth-team manager Jim Furnell described him as "one of the best young midfielders in English football". Wilcox would go on to score 33 goals in over 300 games with Blackburn, whom he also captained. Wilcox was one of the only first-team players of that era who came from the club's own youth system and was not signed from other teams with the multimillion-pound investments of

Jack Walker Jack Walker (19 May 1929 – 17 August 2000) was a British industrialist and businessman. Walker built his fortune in the steel industry, amassing a personal fortune of £600 million. He then went on to become the owner and benefactor of Blac ...

. He played an important part in the title-winning Blackburn team of 1995. Playing on the left flank with attacking fullback

Graeme Le Saux Graeme Pierre Le Saux ( ; born 17 October 1968) is an English former professional footballer and television pundit. As a versatile left sided player he played most of his career at left back with two spells at Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers, Southamp ...

behind him and Stuart Ripley on the opposite flank, they forged a strong attacking line-up with

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer (born 13 August 1970) is an English Association football, football pundit and former professional player who played as a striker (association football), striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of all time and one of t ...

and

Chris Sutton Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit, commentator and presenter of football coverage on television and radio. Sutton played from 1991 to 2007 for No ...

. Lengthy injury problems restricted Wilcox's effectiveness in subsequent seasons and, after experiencing relegation with Blackburn, he moved on to Leeds United for £4 million in December 1999. With the club having just been relegated and with the emergence of

Damien Duff Damien Anthony Duff (born 2 March 1979) is an Irish professional manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player. He is the manager of League of Ireland club Shelbourne F.C., Shelbourne. He began his pro ...

, Rovers saw it as good business for a successful youth product. He was Blackburn's longest-serving player at the time of joining Leeds.

Leeds United

Wilcox, who scored on his debut, played in his usual position as a left-sided midfielder at Leeds, moving

Harry Kewell Harry Kewell (born 22 September 1978) is an Australian soccer coach, manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Yokohama F. Marinos in the J1 League. As a player, Kewell represented Leeds United F.C., Leeds United, Liverpool ...

into a more advanced role. He helped the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

side to the semi-finals of the

1999–2000 UEFA Cup The 1999–2000 UEFA Cup season was the 29th edition of the UEFA Cup competition. The final took place at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen and was won by Galatasaray, who defeated Arsenal in the final. The game was scoreless through the first ninet ...

, where they lost to eventual winners,

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

. A year later he was part of the club's run to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

semi-finals, where they lost again, this time to eventually consecutive runners-up

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. Wilcox again suffered relegation, in 2004, as Leeds struggled with a large financial burden after failing to qualify for the Champions League, forcing the sale of several high-profile stars. He was released by Leeds in May 2004. Overall, he made 106 appearances for Leeds, scoring six goals.

Leicester City

In 2004, Wilcox signed on a free transfer with fellow relegated club Leicester on a one-year deal. He initially signed a one-year deal which was extended by another year in the summer of 2005. Wilcox made an excellent start to his Leicester career, but unfortunately picked up a cruciate ligament injury in October 2004. It was feared it would end his season and maybe his career, but he returned in City's 3–1 win over

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

on 2 April 2005. He scored once for Leicester, in a 3–2 win over Sheffield United in September 2004. In May 2005, he signed a new one-year contract with Leicester. In November 2005, he joined

on a one-month loan.

Blackpool

On 28 January 2006, Wilcox joined

on a free transfer following a two-month spell on loan to the club, after his old Blackburn teammate

Simon Grayson Simon Nicholas Grayson (born 16 December 1969) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who is head coach of National League (division), National League club Hartlepool ...

requested Wilcox join the club to help save them from relegation. He was released at the end of the season after a disagreement with other staff members.

International career

Wilcox won his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

in a 3–0 win over

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in 1996. After a great debut, in which he hit the bar in the first minute, many tipped him to make the final squad for

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

; however, he was cut from the final squad of 22 players in what

Terry Venables Terence Frederick Venables (6 January 1943 – 25 November 2023), often referred to as El Tel, was an English football player and manager who played for clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers and won two caps for E ...

described as one of the toughest decisions of his career. He went on to play against

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in 1999 and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in 2000; these turned out to be his only other full caps. Wilcox made the provisional squad for

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

but was replaced by

Gareth Barry Gareth Barry (born 23 February 1981) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Mid Sussex League Championship side Hurstpierpoint. He made 653 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa, Manchester City, Everton and ...

after an injury. He also made two appearances for the B team, against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Coaching career

Manchester City

Wilcox joined the

coaching staff in 2012 as an academy coach, a year later he made the step up to the U18s as their head coach and oversaw a national championship title and two

finals. In 2017 after a spell in the job on an interim basis he was appointed to the role of academy director.

Executive roles

Southampton

On 20 January 2023, Wilcox was appointed director of football at

. Wilcox joined Southampton in the summer after serving a notice period with City.

Manchester United

He left Southampton and was appointed technical director at

on 19 April 2024 after both clubs agreed compensation. When

Dan Ashworth Daniel Ashworth (born 6 March 1971) is an English football director. He was the sporting director for Premier League clubs Manchester United and Newcastle United. Previously, he worked as technical director for West Bromwich Albion and Brighton ...

left

on 8 December 2024, Wilcox assumed his responsibilities as

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The ...

. On 4 June 2025, Wilcox was promoted to Director of Football for Manchester United, replacing

Dave Brailsford Sir David John Brailsford (born 29 February 1964) is a British sports director and former cycling coach. He is currently team principal of UCI WorldTeam , and was performance director of British Cycling from 1997 to 2014. He is also currently ...

Personal life

Wilcox is a black belt in judo and even represented England before he became a professional footballer. When he reached the age of seventeen he was made to choose between the two sports, only being able to fully commit himself to one of them as a potential career path. After retiring from football, Wilcox took some time out from the game before joining the commentary staff of

for a year, as well as having his own weekly column in the ''

Lancashire Telegraph The ''Lancashire Telegraph'', formerly the ''Lancashire Evening Telegraph'', is a local tabloid newspaper distributed in East Lancashire, England. It is edited by Richard Duggan. The ''Lancashire Telegraph'' prints Monday to Saturday. There a ...

''.

Honours

Blackburn Rovers *

: 1994–95

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcox, Jason 1971 births Living people Footballers from Farnworth English men's footballers Men's association football wingers Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players England men's B international footballers England men's international footballers Manchester City F.C. non-playing staff Southampton F.C. non-playing staff Manchester United F.C. non-playing staff English association football commentators English male judoka