Jason Roberts

Jason Andre Davis Roberts MBE (born 25 January 1978) is a former professional footballer who is now Chief Football Development Officer at CONCACAF.

Born in Park Royal, London, Roberts was playing football from an early age, and spent time in the youth academies at several professional clubs, but was not retained.

He made his debut in November 1995, the season Hayes won promotion to the Football Conference.

After a spell in non-league football with Hayes, he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1997.

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 City, where he scored one goal against Oldham in three appearances.

He failed to make a first-team appearance for Wolves, and had loan spells at Torquay United and Bristol City before signing for Bristol Rovers in 1998.

He quickly established himself in the first team, scoring 38 goals in his two seasons at the club.

He joined Bristol Rovers for £250,000 in August 1998.

In the 1998–99 season, Roberts scored 16 goals in 37 league appearances, and was one of the top goal scorers in the FA Cup with a total of seven goals.

He continued his plunder in the next season, scoring 22 goals in 41 appearances.

After the club failed to gain promotion, Roberts handed in a transfer request and was sold to West Bromwich Albion in July 2000.

His goals helped the team reach the First Division play-offs in his first season at the club, then promotion to the Premier League in the following season.

Roberts scored three goals in his first Premier League season as the club were relegated back down to the First Division.

In the summer of 2000 however, following Rovers' failure to gain promotion, he handed in a transfer request to the club.

Roberts moved to West Bromwich Albion on 26 July 2000, for a club record £2 million fee.

He made his debut in a 1–0 defeat away at Nottingham Forest on 12 August, the opening day of the 2000–01 season.

He scored twice against Swansea City in the League Cup on 6 September, his first goals for the club.

Roberts scored 17 goals in 50 appearances in 2000–01; he formed a successful partnership with Lee Hughes and took Albion to the First Division playoffs.

He was loaned out to Portsmouth at the start of the 2003–04 season, and was then sold to Wigan Athletic in January 2004.

He scored 21 goals in Wigan's promotion-winning campaign in the 2004–05 season, and won the club's Player of the Year award at the end of the season.

His goals in the following season helped the club finish tenth in its inaugural Premier League campaign, as well as taking them to the 2006 Football League Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium – the club's first ever major cup final.

After failing to agree a new contract with Wigan, he was sold to Blackburn Rovers in 2006, where he played European football for the first time.

He made 156 appearances for Blackburn, scoring 28 goals.

In 2007, he established the Jason Roberts Foundation, and was awarded an MBE for services to sport in 2010 New Year Honours – Grenada.

In 2011, he began working as a presenter for BBC Radio 5 Live's 6-0-6 programme.

In January 2012.

he signed for Reading on an eighteen-month contract and helped them to promotion from the Football League Championship as champions.

On 20 March 2014, he announced his immediate retirement from the game due to persistent injuries.

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.