Born in Point Fortin in Trinidad and Tobago, Jones Jones attended St. Anthony's College, which he attended with fellow future Black Cats teammate Carlos Edwards.
Jones started his football career in his homeland for T&T Pro League team Joe Public. He then moved to W Connection, also in the TT Pro League, where he spent two years.
In 2008 during an interview with Simon Bird, Jones explained that he spent months in 2004 touring Europe looking for a club or face a career in the Trinidad army.
"I was on the road for three and a half months travelling round Europe, spending two weeks in different places having trials.
"It was hard because I'd just had my son and it was make it - or join the army."
Jones stated he had trials at several British clubs including Manchester United, West Ham, Southampton and Rangers. "I went to Rangers and Southampton and had trials with Manchester United and had my photo taken with Roy Keane, West Ham and went over to Holland."
In the interview we also found out the origin of that flipping (yes, I've used the pun again) good celebration. As Jones explains, it was his football-playing Uncle Philbert that inspired him.
"My dad and uncle played football and they became quite famous, and I liked that. My uncle did back flips and he inspired me to do that.
"I was about seven and I saw him doing doing some sit-ups and, bang, just like that, out of nowhere he did a back flip. Most incredible thing I ever saw!
"I wanted to do it. I played in school tournaments at the age of 13 and the first time I scored did the back flip. I scored, ran to the corner and just flipped over.
"Everyone stood back, they'd never seen it before, and that was the start of it."
Jones got his chance in July 2004 when he signed for Southampton for a nominal fee. After a couple of impressive loans spells at Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City, Jones returned to Southampton.
That proved to be his breakthrough at Southampton, and he scored and impressive 16 goals in during the 2006-07 season as the Saints Southampton reached the Championship play-offs.
Interest in Jones' services quickly emerged, and it was rumoured that Derby wanted to sign him. Upon hearing this Jones, submitted a transfer request and reportedly went on 'strike' until an exit could be engineered.
It never materialised, but he soon got his move in August 2007 when Jones signed for Sunderland in a reported £6 million deal with countryman Stern John going the other way.
Jones made his Sunderland debut against Manchester United on the 1 September however he couldn't help the team escape a 1-0 defeat. Two weeks later Jones scored his first goal for Sunderland as the Black Cats beat Reading 2-1 at the Stadium of Light.
An impressive start to his career at Sunderland attracted a lot of interest in Jones. In November 2007 it was rumoured that Liverpool were set to sign Jones in £12 million deal with Peter Crouch coming to the Black Cats (one of many times Crouch was been linked with a move to Wearside).
As we know, that never happened. However only a month later Jones was linked with moves to Liverpool (again) and Chelsea. Black Cats boss Roy Keane was quick to quash the rumours stating Jones would be going nowhere. However, things were about to change dramatically for the striker, and not in a good way.
In June 2008, Jones suffered a horrific injury which kept him out for around five months. He was playing a post-season friendly for Trinidad and Tobago against England, and he collided with Three Lions stopper David James. It left his knee in tatters, and he was never quite the same ever again.
Jones returned to first team action as a substitute against local rival Newcastle, helping the team to a 2-1 win over their rivals.
More links to other clubs still came, with Jones was linked with a move to Tottenham. However, those links were put to bed when he signed a new four-and-a-half-year contract with the Black Cats.
Jones ultimately scored 28 goals for Sunderland in his 101 appearances, and some of them were flipping good (I had to squeeze it in again - the last time I promise). One goal that comes to mind was a cracking 22-yard curler against Wolves on 27 September 2009.
Jones eventually left Sunderland on 11 August 2010 when he signed for Stoke for a club record fee of £8 million. He signed a four-year deal taking a pay cut to make sure the move went ahead.
Jones spent four seasons at Stoke racking up 28 goals across 117 appearances before he exited for this weekend's opponents Cardiff.
While at Cardiff Jones spent time on loan at Bournemouth and Al Jazira. He left Cardiff permanently in 2016 when on 15 July, moving across the Atlantic to join newly formed MLS side Atlanta United.
He spent one season at Atlanta, during which he had a six-game loan spell at TT Pro League side Central. Jones left Atlanta when he was traded by the club to Kansas City, although he never actually made an appearance for them before retiring.
During his 18-year career, Jones had an excellent international career where he scored an impressive 23 goals across 90 caps. This included two goals in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
His involvement in the world cup earned him the Chaconia Medal (Gold Class) which is the second highest state decoration in Trinidad and Tobago.
Jones is still very much involved in football, he is currently the manager of the Trinidad and Tobago women's national team, a role he has held since October 2021.
SOURCE: si.com