Jody Steven Morris (born 22 December 1978) is an English professional football

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 * Co ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

. As a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, Morris played for Chelsea,

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around ...

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 Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, ea ...

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an ol ...

and

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

. He won several trophies at Chelsea, including the

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

in 1998 and

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

in 2000. After retiring from playing, Morris became a youth coach at Chelsea's

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

. He was then named assistant manager to

Frank Lampard Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Everton. He is widely regarded as one of Chelsea’s greatest ever players, and one of the greatest midfiel ...

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

in 2018 and Chelsea in 2019.

Club career

Chelsea

Morris came through the youth ranks at Chelsea, alongside his close friend

John Terry John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa. He was most recently the ...

. He became the youngest player to ever play in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for Chelsea when he debuted at the age of 17 years and 43 days in the home game against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

on 4 February 1996 and was named Chelsea's Young Player of the Year for 1996–97. While at Chelsea, he made 124 league appearances and was a late substitute in the

2000 FA Cup Final The 2000 FA Cup Final was the 119th final of the FA Cup, and the 72nd (excluding replays) and last to be played at the old Wembley Stadium. It took place on 20 May 2000 and was contested between Chelsea and Aston Villa, the latter making its fi ...

, receiving a winner's medal. In April 2000, Chelsea won 3–1 against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

; Morris was later described by

Xavi Xavier Hernández Creus (born 25 January 1980), known as Xavi is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who is the manager of La Liga club Barcelona. Widely considered one of the greatest midfielders of all time, Xavi was r ...

as one of his toughest opponents. Morris played 173 times for Chelsea across all competitions. He was also briefly made captain of the club by manager Gianluca Vialli. However, when Claudio Ranieri took over from Vialli as Chelsea boss, Morris' first team opportunities diminished, and he was linked with a host of clubs including being reunited with his former England under-21 manager Peter Taylor at Leicester. Morris never regained his position as a first team regular at Chelsea, finding himself behind players, such as

Roberto di Matteo Roberto Di Matteo (; born 29 May 1970) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. During his playing career as a midfielder, he played for Swiss clubs Schaffhausen, Zürich and Aarau before joining Lazio of Italy and Che ...

Dennis Wise Dennis Frank Wise (born 16 December 1966) is an English former professional football player and manager who played as a central midfielder. He is the president of Serie B side Como 1907. He is best known for having spent the majority of his ...

Didier Deschamps Didier Claude Deschamps (; born 15 October 1968) is a French professional football manager and former player who has been manager of the France national team since 2012. He played as a defensive midfielder for several clubs, in France, Italy, ...

and

Emmanuel Petit Emmanuel Laurent Petit (born 22 September 1970) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder at club level for Arsenal, Barcelona, Monaco, and Chelsea. He represented France at international level in two FIF ...

. He was offered a new five-year contract with Chelsea in 2003, but chose to turn it down.

Leeds, Rotherham, and Millwall

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...

offered him the chance of regular first team football at

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

and they shook hands on a deal, but it fell through. He joined

instead, but made only 12 appearances for the club. After a short spell at

, where he scored once against Stoke City, he joined

in 2004. Morris made 70 first-team appearances for Millwall, before fracturing his cheekbone, and then suffered cruciate knee ligament damage at

on his comeback game, towards the end of the 2005–06 season. He signed a new one-year deal in June 2006, with the club having an additional one-year option. In June 2007, Morris was released by Millwall. Morris then had a brief trial period at

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

, and trained with League Two side

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings w ...

, in a bid to earn himself a contract at the West London club.

St Johnstone and Bristol City

Morris signed for Scottish side

, then in the First Division, on a short-term deal at the end of February 2008, playing under Derek McInnes, his former teammate at Millwall during the 2006–07 season. He scored a goal on his debut against Dundee. He played in the club's

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Rangers in April 2008 but was one of two Saints players to miss in the

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. After a successful five months at

McDiarmid Park McDiarmid Park is a stadium in Perth, Scotland, used mainly for association football. It has been the home ground of Scottish Premiership side St Johnstone since its opening in 1989. The stadium has an all-seated capacity of . As well as St Jo ...

, Morris signed a two-year deal with the Perth side at the end of the season. He was part of the title-winning team that in May 2009 gained promotion to the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

after a seven-year absence. Morris signed a new contract with Saints in October 2009, while Derek McInnes praised his influence on the squad. After McInnes left St Johnstone to manage

in October 2011, Morris assisted caretaker manager Alec Cleland with the coaching of the squad. Morris signed a one-year contract with Bristol City in June 2012, reuniting him with Derek McInnes. Morris had his contract terminated with Bristol City on 31 January 2013 having only made four league appearances for the club.

Coaching career

Chelsea Academy

In the 2013–14 season Morris returned to Chelsea, initially to help coach the Under-21 squad. He was then an assistant coach of the Under-18 team, and moved to head coach of the team for the 2016–17 season. The team won 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. I ...

for the fifth successive time in 2018. At Chelsea, Morris coached possession-based attacking football, and used several formations including the 3–4–3, 3–5–2, 4–3–3 and

4–4–2 In association football, the formation of a team refers to the position players take in relation to each other on a pitch. As association football is a fluid and fast-moving game, a player's position (with the exception of the goalkeeper) in a ...

. In his two seasons as head coach, Chelsea's Under-18s won 59 matches and lost 5 times. They won the treble in 2016–17 and the quadruple in 2017–18.

Derby County and Chelsea

In May 2018, Morris became assistant to former Chelsea teammate

. Their first game in charge was a 2–1 win over

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

, thanks to a last-minute winner from Tom Lawrence. On 25 September, Derby knocked

team

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

out of the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by th ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after We ...

on penalties, following a 2–2 draw. At the end of the season, Derby qualified for the Championship play-offs after coming sixth in the league. In the semi-finals, they overturned a 1–0 loss at home to

in the first leg with a 4–2 win at

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the Home (sports), home of Premier League club Leeds United F.C., Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the ...

in the second that gave them a 4–3 aggregate win. This took them to the final against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa P ...

, which Derby lost 2–1. Morris returned to Chelsea in July 2019 as part of the first-team coaching staff following the appointment of Lampard as head coach. They finished 4th in the Premier League and qualified for the

. The following season, Morris left Chelsea in January 2021 after Lampard was sacked.

Personal life

Morris grew up in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, a mile-and-a-half away from Chelsea's

Stamford Bridge Stamford Bridge may refer to: * Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in England ** Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 * Stamford Bridge (bridge), a bridge in the village of Stamford Bridge * Stamford Bridge (stadium) ...

. His skill as a footballer was evident at a young age, with fellow player

Rio Ferdinand Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for BT Sport. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and wa ...

dubbing him "the best schoolboy footballer in London". In September 2001, Morris, Chelsea teammates

and

Eiður Guðjohnsen Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen (transliterated as Eidur Smari Gudjohnsen; born 15 September 1978) is an Icelandic professional football coach and former player who played as a forward. Eiður saw his greatest success in England and Spain with Chels ...

, and

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the Nation ...

Frank Sinclair Frank Mohammed Sinclair (born 3 December 1971) is an English-born Jamaican former professional football player and manager and current coach at Doncaster Rovers. He made 756 league and cup appearances in a 25-year playing career, scoring 27 g ...

, were drunk and unruly in a Heathrow Airport hotel containing many Americans left stranded by the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

. The Chelsea quartet were each fined two weeks' wages, totalling around £100,000, which was donated to the 9/11 relief efforts. In August 2002, Morris, along with fellow footballers

and Des Byrne, was cleared of a charge of

affray In many legal jurisdictions related to English common law, affray is a public order offence consisting of the fighting of one or more persons in a public place to the terror (in french: à l'effroi) of ordinary people. Depending on their act ...

in relation to an incident at a nightclub. In 2006, Morris drove down a one-way street the wrong way while three times over the drink-drive limit. This resulted in a driving ban for four years, 80 hours of community service and a two-year suspended jail sentence.

Honours

Player

Chelsea *

: 1999–2000 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier L ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

: 1997–98 *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

Manager

Chelsea Under-18s *

: 2016–17, 2017–18 *Under-18 Premier League: 2016–17, 2017–18 *Under-18 Premier League Cup: 2017–18 *Premier League National: 2017–18

References

External links

*
England profile
at The FA {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Jody 1978 births Living people Footballers from Hammersmith English footballers Association football midfielders Chelsea F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Scottish Football League players Scottish Premier League players England youth international footballers Derby County F.C. non-playing staff Chelsea F.C. non-playing staff Association football coaches FA Cup Final players