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The former Liverpool and Wales defender Joey Jones has died at the age of 70. Jones played 100 times in a trophy-laden spell at Liverpool, winning two European Cups, a Uefa Cup and a league title in three years.
The Llandudno-born left-back earned 72 caps for Wales, starting and ending his career at Wrexham after spells at Anfield, Chelsea and Huddersfield.
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Jones’s former Wales teammate Mickey Thomas posted on X: “This morning I lost my best friend and soul mate, Sir Joey our memories will never fade – Today my heart is broken. Love you Sir Joey RIP. My condolences are with Janice and all the family.”
Jones’s contribution to Liverpool was immortalised in the “Joey ate the frogs legs, made the Swiss roll, now he’s munching Gladbach” banner revealed by fans at the 1977 European Cup final victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach. The banner was in reference to victories over Saint-Étienne and Zurich in the quarter and semi-finals.
“I guarantee the Germans would have known every player in our team apart from me – just one of the lads who has come off the Kop,” he said of the banner, which after 20 years in his garage is now in Liverpool’s museum. “I guess that’s why the fans identified with me because I’d give it my all and I was one of them. I never considered myself to be skilful but I was the type of player I think any team needs. I think as much of that banner as I do the winners’ medal.”
With Wrexham, Jones won the Welsh Cup and helped the club reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1974. He had a brief spell as caretaker manager and remained a fixture at the Racecourse Ground even after his retirement, following heart surgery in 2002 and a minor stroke in 2015, he returned as youth team ambassador in 2021.
A post from the club on X read: “Wrexham AFC are devastated to learn of the passing of Club legend Joey Jones. A true Club legend, on and off the pitch, with time for everybody he met, Joey will be greatly missed by all who knew him.”
There were also tributes on X from former Liverpool stars Jamie Carragher and John Aldridge and the Football Association of Wales chief executive Noel Mooney. Aldridge wrote: “What a lovely man and an inspirational full back who gave his heart and soul in a red shirt and for all the clubs he played for! Our thoughts are with Joey’s family! I’m a lucky man to have met him many times.”
