Former Manchester United defender Phil Jones has hinted at his retirement at the age of 31 as he begins a new challenge in football away from the pitch.
Jones was let go by United over the summer when the four-year contract he signed in 2019 expired. Sadly, injuries meant he didn't play at all during his final season with the club and had only made 13 appearances in all competitions since the start of the 2019/20 campaign.
His last game for United proved to be a 15-minute cameo at the end of a 3-0 Premier League win over Brentford in May 2022. Overall, he made 229 appearances for the club and won three major trophies. Jones was still a regular starter under Jose Mourinho when fully fit and maintained that even into the start of the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer era until injury problems fully took over.
At the time of his release, Jones was United's longest serving player, having arrived at the club just over two weeks earlier than David de Gea in the summer of 2011. They became free agents on the same day after 12 years, with De Gea so far rebuffing Cristiano Ronaldo's efforts to tempt him to Saudi Arabia and willing to also consider retirement if the right offer doesn’t materialise.
Jones hasn't formally announced his retirement as a professional player, but confirmation of him joining a PFA business school course to train aspiring future sporting directors suggests that his football focus is now firmly on what happens behind the scenes instead.
"Start of a new journey," he posted on social media. "Great to begin the global football sport directorship course with the PFA business school, learning new things about the game, whilst also continuing to push ahead with my A licence and badges at the club that gave me so much.
"Excited to get started," he added.
The course is run in collaboration with programme co-directors Les Reed, the former Southampton director of football and FA technical director, and ex-Spain goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta, who has been a director of football at Athletic Club, Barcelona and Marseille.
Jones also references his coaching badges having returned to United within weeks of his exit to observe training at academy level as part of the workload towards obtaining the qualifications.
