Cliff Jones

Swansea Town

Jones was signed to Billy McCandless' Swansea Town in 1952 when he was 17, joining his brother Bryn who also played for the club. For a time at Swansea he also worked as an apprentice sheet metal worker in The Prince of Wales Dry Dock. He made his debut in the League match against Bury in October 1952. He scored his first goal in the match against Leeds United two games later. He started off as an inside forward, but moved to the left wing in the 1953–54 season. He scored 47 goals in 168 league appearances for the club. and 54 goal in 193 appearances in all competitions.

Tottenham Hotspur

Jones joined Tottenham Hotspur in February 1958 for a record £35,000 (equivalent to £712,644 in 2025). He made his debut for the club on 22 February 1958 in the away match against Arsenal at Highbury. For a while Jones didn't play at his best at Spurs, and he then broke a leg in a tackle with Peter Baker during pre-season training in the summer of 1958. He returned to the team after his recovery in December 1958. He became a prolific goalscorer for the club, scoring 25 goals in all appearances in the 1959–60 season. Jones was a key member of the double-winning team of the 1960–61 season, scoring 19 goals that season. He was also part of the successful Spurs sides in the 1962 FA Cup Final and 1963 European Cup Winners Cup Final, and he also won a further medal as a non-playing substitute in the 1967 FA Cup Final. In 1962, Juventus offered a world-record…

Jones was called into the Welsh national side after playing only 25 times as a winger for Swansea. He made his senior debut playing against Austria in May 1954. In his second appearance for the national side on 22 October 1955, he helped Wales beat England 2–1 at Ninian Park, scoring the winning goal. Jones scored three goals in the 1958 FIFA World Cup play-off in February 1958 against Israel to win 4–0 on aggregate, allowing Wales to qualify for the World Cup for the first time. He played in all five of Wales' games at the 1958 World Cup, and helped Wales reach the quarter-final where they lost to Brazil, beaten by a goal from Pelé. He made a total of 11 appearances for them in World Cup qualifiers between 1957 and 1968. He played his final game for Wales in October 1968 in the World Cup qualifier against Italy. In total he played 59 times for Wales in 15 years, scoring 16 goals.

Jones was born on 7 February 1935 in Swansea, Glamorgan, to a footballing family. His father Ivor; uncles Shoni, Emlyn, Bryn and Bert; brother Bryn; and cousin Ken were also all players. He was also a schoolboy friend of Terry Medwin, who would later become his teammate at Tottenham Hotspur. He was brought up in the Sandfields area of Swansea, and attended St. Helens Mixed Junior School. When he was eleven, he attended Oxford Street Secondary Modern, where he joined the school's football team. When he was twelve, he was selected for the Swansea Schoolboys team, which he captained in 1950 and won the Welsh Shield and English Schools Trophy.

Jones married his wife Joan in 1955 and they have four children, nine grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren. Among Jones' grandsons are former footballer Scott Neilson and football coach Matt Wells. After retiring from football, Jones taught PE and managed the school football team at Highbury Grove School in North London for 29 years, retiring in December 2000. In February 2025 he celebrated his 90th birthday at the Tottenham Stadium. Jones has been inducted into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame as well as the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame. He was also inducted onto the Supporters' Trust Wall of Fame outside the Liberty Stadium. He received an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Wales.