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Ritchie Jones
Personal information
Full name	Richard Jones
Date of birth	September 26, 1986 (1986-09-26) (age 21)
Place of birth	Manchester, England
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Yeovil Town (on loan from Manchester United)
Number	16
Youth clubs
1995-2004	Manchester United
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2005- 2005-2006 2006 2006-2007 2007-	Manchester United → Royal Antwerp (loan) → Colchester United (loan) → Barnsley (loan) → Yeovil Town (loan)	0 (0) 4 (2) 6 (0) 4 (0) 9 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:23, 12 December 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

For other people named Richard Jones, see Richard Jones.

Richard "Ritchie" Jones, (born September 26, 1986 in Manchester) is an English football player. He is a midfielder, and joined Manchester United as a junior. He mainly plays in the centre of midfield but can also play comfortably on the wing or centre half and even full back. He has made 5 appearances in the first team in the F.A. and Carling Cup. His contract at Manchester United was extended by two years in June 2006, and will now not expire until the end of season of 2007/8. He has made league starts for Colchester United and Barnsley in 2006/07 and for Yeovil Town in the 2007/08 season.

Jones has played for the Manchester United F.C. Academy since the age of nine. Jones scored the Golden Goal to win the Milk Cup in 2003 beating Preston in the Final. He captained United's youth cup team and was part of the United's reserve side which won four trophies in 2004/05, and three trophies in 2005/06. The first time ever a United reserve team has won back to back titles.

Ritchie has also played for England at U15, U16, U17 (scoring the winning goal for the side in the Nordic Championship final in Sweden), U18, U19 and U20 levels. He was a member of the England Under-19 squad which reached the final of the European Under-19 Football Championship in July 2005, before losing out to France. He acted as captain during some of these matches.

Ritchie appeared for Manchester United five times during his career with the club. His appearances were against Barnet, West Bromwich Albion, Birmingham City, Burton Albion and Crewe Alexandra. Jones made his senior debut with United on 26 October 2005 in a Carling Cup game. Jones also was substitute in a Champions league game against French team Lille OSC away. This was followed by a place on the bench against Aston Villa in the Premiership then another appearance against Birmingham away in the League Cup.

His next appearance was in a highly emotional night against West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford, when he came on for the last half hour and almost scored in a game that was dedicated to the late George Best.His last appearance before going on loan for match experience was against Burton Albion away which ended in a scoreless draw. In the 2004-05 season Ritchie played for United's reserve side in the Pontins League, and in the Premier Reserve League, both of which United won. His goals also helped United get to the finals of 2 cup competitions.

Ritchie was on loan to Manchester United's 'feeder' club, Belgian second division club Royal Antwerp, to increase his experience of first team matches. After playing 4 games for Antwerp his loan spell was cut short to provide cover in an injury-plagued United midfield.

The start of season 2006-07 Jones made two more first team appearances. They were pre season games against Preston North End and Macclesfield Town in which he was credited with an assist to enable Wayne Rooney to score.

Since then, he has appeared in more League Cup games, more recently the 2-1 win against Crewe Alexandra in which his cross set up Ole Gunnar Solskjær to score United's first goal.

In October 2006 he was loaned to Colchester United to help provide cover for injuries at the Championship club following their game at Coventry for the short time of just one month, though he expressed his desire to stay at the club. His performances earned him praise from the Colchester United Manager Geraint Williams saying Jones was a credit to his club. ^[1] In February 2007, he joined fellow Manchester United youngster Adam Eckersley on loan at Barnsley until May 6th 2007. Ritchie was given the number 10 shirt. Ritchie returned to Manchester United at the end of the 2006/7 season.

On 14th August 2007 Ritchie signed for Yeovil Town F.C. on loan to gain further first team football. Ritchie made his debut for Yeovil Town on 18th August 2007 against Port Vale. It was his excellent pin point cross that lead to the only goal in a 1-0 win for Yeovil^[2].

• Ritchie Jones career stats at Soccerbase