Francis Jeffers

Football player infobox
playername = Francis Jeffers


fullname = Francis Jeffers
height = height|ft=5|in=9
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1981|1|25|df=y
cityofbirth = Liverpool
countryofbirth = England
currentclub = Sheffield Wednesday
clubnumber = 9
position = Striker
youthyears = 1997–1998
youthclubs = Everton Academy
years = 1998–2001
2001–2004
2003–2004
2004–2006
2005
2006–2007
2007
2007–
clubs = Everton
Arsenal
→ Everton (loan)
Charlton Athletic
→ Rangers (loan)
Blackburn Rovers
→ Ipswich Town (loan)
Sheffield Wednesday
caps(goals) = 49 (18)
22 0(4)
18 0(0)
20 0(3)
08 0(0)
10 0(0)
09 0(4)
12 0(2)
nationalyears = 1999–2001
2003
nationalteam = England U21
England
nationalcaps(goals) = 16 (13)
01 0(1)
pcupdate = 20:13, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
ntupdate = 20:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Francis Jeffers (born 25 January 1981 in Liverpool, Merseyside) is an English footballer, currently playing for Sheffield Wednesday.

Club career

Early career

A striker, Jeffers began his career at Everton, making his debut as a half-time substitute (for Dave Watson) on Boxing Day 1997 at Old Trafford at the age of 16 years 335 days. [ [http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=247452 Man Utd 2 - 0 Everton, 26-12-1997 (Match summary)] ] Showing a lot of early promise and talent, he scored 20 goals in 60 matches for the Toffees. His performances caught the eye of Arsène Wenger, who signed him for Arsenal in 2001 for a fee of £9m. However, Jeffers did not live up to the "fox in the box" tag, and his time at Arsenal was dogged by injury.

He returned to Everton for 2003-04 on loan, but only scored twice in 22 appearances for his side, before falling out with manager David Moyes and prematurely returning to London. He was sold for £2.6m to Charlton Athletic in the summer of 2004. In 2004-05 he scored 5 goals in 24 matches.

He joined Rangers on loan on 31 August 2005 for six months but returned in December after his performances in the SPL failed to live up to expectation.

Charlton manager Alan Curbishley announced Jeffers would leave the club after his contract expired in the summer of 2006. He had been linked with moves to Bolton Wanderers, Championship side Coventry City, and even a return to Goodison Park for Everton.

Blackburn Rovers

Initially, Coventry City looked favourites to get his signature, only for Blackburn Rovers to offer him a contract. Unable to resist the lure of Premier League football, Jeffers signed for Blackburn on 30 June 2006 with a two-year contract. [cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/blackburn_rovers/5141102.stm
title=Blackburn snap up striker Jeffers
date=2006-07-03
publisher=bbc.co.uk
accessdate=2008-02-14]

He joined Championship side Ipswich Town on a one month loan deal on 2 March 2007, scoring his first goal for Ipswich on his full debut away at Hull City. In this match, he also received the man of the match award for scoring and setting up a goal. Ipswich went on to win the game 5-2. He returned to Blackburn after suffering a hamstring injury against Southend United, but having made a quick recovery, he was allowed to return to Ipswich on loan until the end of the 2006/07 season.

Ipswich had tried to negotiate a permanent move for Jeffers but after having two bids rejected (£250,000 & £600,000), Ipswich Chairman David Sheepshanks accused Blackburn of holding his club to ransom. Ipswich did however make a third and final bid for Jeffers but after all the wrangling between the two clubs, personal terms could not be agreed.

heffield Wednesday

Jeffers joined Sheffield Wednesday on 9 August 2007 for a fee believed to be in the region of £700,000 on a three year deal, and was given the number 9 jersey to take the place of the Scottish footballer Steve MacLean, a former fan favourite. Jeffers made his debut in an opening day 4-1 defeat at Ipswich Town. He sustained an injury which kept him out of action for all but 20 minutes of the first month of the 2007-08 season.

On returning from injury Jeffers was originally subjected to a level of criticism by some quarters of the Wednesday fan base. However he managed to wipe away most of that with a 25 yard screamer against Hull City after flicking the ball on to his strike partner Deon Burton for the lay off. The goal brought an end to a 6 game losing streak at the start of the 2007-08 Football League Championship season.

After a lively start against Stoke City however, Jeffers was on the end of a late tackle from Ryan Shawcross and was taken off the pitch on a stretcher. First reports labelled the ankle broken, but after a couple of scans it was announced that he had damaged ligaments and would be out for roughly 3 months, a big blow after he had caused Stoke's defence lot's of trouble in his 40 minutes on the pitch, setting up Marcus Tudgay for 2 goals, to help Sheffield Wednesday to a 4-2 away win.

Jeffers made his return from his ankle injury as a substitute versus Hull City, but ended up on the losing side after a 1-0 loss. Just 48 hours later Jeffers played at Hillsborough for the first time in two months, and not only played for 45 minutes of the game, but also scored the winning goal after 82 minutes from the penalty spot. This was Jeffers' second goal for the Owls.

In the summer of 2008, Jeffers had more problems with his ankle and also picked up a groin injury, leaving him injured until September 2008. Jeffers returned to first team action with a twenty five minute substitute appearance in a 0-6 defeat at Reading in mid September and then a further ten minutes against his former club Ipswich Town.

International career

He has one cap for England, scoring on his debut, a consolatory goal in a defeat at the hands of Australia in 2003.cite news
title = England spellbound by wizards of Oz
url = http://www.thefa.com/England/SeniorTeam/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2003/02/39617.htm
publisher = TheFA.com
date = 2003-02-12
accessdate = 2008-06-24] He is one of small group of players to have scored on their sole appearance for England.

Jeffers is also the joint all-time leading scorer for England Under-21s with 13 goals, a record he shares with Alan Shearer.

International goals

References

External links

* [http://www.swfc.co.uk/page/ProfilesDetail/0,,10304~5699,00.html Francis Jeffers player profile] at swfc.co.uk
* [http://www.cafc.co.uk/PlayerDisplay.ink?season=2005/2006&squadno=3994 Francis Jeffers player profile] at cafc.co.uk
*soccerbase|id=13590|name=Francis Jeffers
*ESPNsoccernet|id=8064|name=Francis Jeffers
* [http://www.footballdatabase.com/site/players/index.php?dumpPlayer=133 FootballDatabase provides Francis Jeffers's profile and stats]