Jason Roberts

Early career

Roberts was born in Central Middlesex Hospital, north-west London. He grew up in Stonebridge, in the London Borough of Brent. Roberts was born into a sporting family: his uncles Cyrille Regis, Dave Regis and Otis Roberts all had careers as professional footballers, while another uncle, John Regis, is a former Olympic sprinter. He began playing football from the age of six, and was scouted by several professional clubs while playing for Parkfield Youth. He trained at the youth academies of a number of these clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, Watford, and Chelsea, but failed to earn a contract. He then spent time on trial at Wycombe Wanderers, but was not offered a permanent deal at the club. After being rejected by Wycombe, Roberts spent more than a year away from football. He began working as an export clerk, and was considering quitting the game altogether. Only when his uncle Cyrille arranged a trial at former club Hayes in the Isthmian League Premier Division Roberts returned to football. He did enough to impress the club and signed a part-time contract worth £15 per week. He made his debut in November 1995, the season Hayes won promotion to the Football Conference. After scoring five goals early in the 1997–98 season, he was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers for £250,000, before moving to Torquay United on loan, where he scored six goals in 13 games. These goals came as Torquay struggled and won a relegation battle. Another loan took him to Bristol…

With Grenada national team, Roberts scored in qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup against the United States. Roberts scored the first two goals of a 10–0 rout of the US Virgin Islands on 26 March 2008, in the first game of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification. Roberts qualified to play for Grenada through his father, who was born there. His mother was born in French Guiana.

In Wigan's first season in the Premier League, Roberts wrote a weekly blog for the BBC Sport's website. In August 2011 he was announced as a new presenter on 6-0-6 and made his first appearance on Match of the Day 2 in November 2011. He appeared on Match of the Day 2 for the second time on 15 January 2012, the third time on 1 April and a fourth on 11 November. He worked as a co-commentator at the 2014 FIFA World Cup for 5 Live and joined the BBC full-time at the start of the 2014–2015 season to work as a pundit and co-commentator.

Jason Roberts was named Concacaf Director of Development in November 2017. He is a member of the FIFA Players' Status Committee and is based in Miami, Florida.