Jermaine Jones life and biography

Jermaine Jones is a German-born American international soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Schalke 04 and the United States national team.

Jones grew up in Frankfurt-Bonames. His father is an African-American soldier who was stationed in Germany. As a child, Jones lived in Chicago and Greenwood, Mississippi in the U.S. before his parents divorced and he returned to Germany with his mother.

Jones is a good friend of female football player and multiple national champion Steffi Jones, who also is a German-American and the child of an African American soldier. They both started in the same club, SV Bonames (albeit not at the same time). The two are not related.

Jones started his youth career at SV Bonames, moving to FV Bad Vilbel when he was 13 in 1994 and in 1995 was purchased by Eintracht Frankfurt to play in their academy. He spent the next five years learning and building the quality of his game, and made his first appearance in the Eintracht Frankfurt II team in the 2000–01 season making 25 appearances and scoring eight goals. He made the step up to the main squad in 2001. Jones made 46 appearances for the Frankfurt senior team over two years in the 2001–2003 seasons, scoring seven goals as he was primarily played as a central defensive midfielder.

His good form at the time saw him purchased by Bayer Leverkusen, however first team chances were scarce, and he was relegated to playing the majority of the 2004–05 Bundesliga season for the Bayer Leverkusen II second string. Jones re-signed for Eintracht Frankfurt on loan barely six months after signing for Bayer Leverkusen, and the following season completed his return to the Hesse based team before the 2005–06 season. However in the 2005–06 season, Jones suffered a serious leg injury that required surgery, and was out of the game for eight months, only returning in the first half of the last game of the season. Over the next two seasons Jones shed his "teen idol" image, and established himself as a quality player and became captain of the squad.

In March 2007, Jones announced on the official Eintracht bulletin board that he would not extend his contract expiring at the end of the 2006–07 season. This enraged many Eintracht supporters, as Jones cancelled a contract negotiation with chairman Heribert Bruchhagen a few days before it was scheduled to take place. In October 2006, he already had defended himself for turning down a contract offer, underlining he wanted to stay after all the management of the Eagles had done for him during his injuries.This led to him joining Bundesliga giants FC Schalke 04.

The following three seasons at Schalke were relatively mixed for Jones, with his career being hit further by injuries including a Muscular hairline crack injury which kept him out of the team for the majority of the 2009–10 season. However he did enjoy his best stint playing regular games for the first time in his career playing 70 games in three seasons. The beginning of the 2010–11 season was again frustrating for Jones through lack of games, and after a falling out with team manager Felix Magath, he was made available for transfer.

On 14 January 2011, it was revealed that English Premier League team Blackburn Rovers were interested in taking Jones on loan with a view to making the signing permanent at the end of the season. With Rovers player Vince Grella's time at Rovers blighted by regular injury, the club had been looking for a defensive addition for some time, and Jones was thought to be a excellent addition to a newly developed squad under new Rovers manager Steve Kean. On 15 January, Kean confirmed a deal would take place in the next week.

On 18 January 2011, it was confirmed by the club that Jones had signed on loan until the end of the season. He made his Premier League debut on 23 January 2011, starting in a 2–0 home win over West Bromwich Albion at Ewood Park and completed the full 90 minutes, receiving the man of the match award on his first appearance for the club. On 30 April 2011, Jones put in a man-of-the-match display, playing the full 90 minutes in the derby game against Bolton Wanderers in a 1–0 win at Ewood Park. On 7 May 2011, in the match with West Ham United, he completed another 90 minutes this time in a 1–1 draw at Upton Park. On 14 May 2011, Jones started the game against Manchester United at Ewood Park and received a booking from referee Phil Dowd, he was also substituted off on 73 minutes for David Dunn. On 22 May 2011 against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, he completed the full 90 minutes in the last league match of the season in a 3–2 win for Rovers. He made 15 Barclays Premier League starts for Rovers and picked up 8 yellow cards in total.

Jones broke through into the Eintracht Frankfurt squad, became a German Under-21 international and a fan favourite, somewhat due to his flashy outward appearance.

Though Jones played four matches with Germany's Under 21 team, he was often left out of the senior team, save a few friendlies with mostly reserves. In June 2009, Jones declared to the media that he would be available to play for the United States after it was clear to him that the German national team manager, Joachim Löw, did not have any plans for him in the current German set-up. Jones was eligible based on a new FIFA ruling allowing players to switch their national teams if the player had not yet played in an official FIFA match with the senior team despite having played at the youth level. Jones was eligible for the United States due to his father's American nationality.On 20 October 2009, Jones was cleared by FIFA to join the United States national team. He met the U.S. national team for the first time in March 2010 and reportedly fit in "really well" according to Tim Howard. In the end, Jones did not recover in time for the World Cup.

On 4 August 2010, Jones was called into the United States squad for the 10 August friendly against Brazil. The next day, however, he withdrew from the squad due to fitness concerns related to his injury from the previous season. Jones was included on the roster for the US national team's friendlies against Poland and Colombia in October. He made his debut for the United States against Poland and assisted Jozy Altidore on the game's opening goal in the 13th minute. Jones seemingly scored the first goal on a deflection off a Jamaican defender for the United States on 19 June 2011 in the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarter-final match against Jamaica, but the goal was later ruled an own goal. On 21 January 2012, Jones captained the side in the 1–0 win over Venezuela in a friendly match. The American media have raised concern both against calling up Jones for the national squad as well as Jürgen Klinsmann's decision to name him captain in that game.

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