Kenwyne Jones Bio Send To Friend  

Sunderland paid £6million to land this physical and pacey striker from Southampton in August 2007 after Roy Keane's team had won promotion to the Premier League.

The Trinidad and Tobago striker proved an instant hit at the Stadium of Light, despite a modest goal tally of seven goals in 32 games, and was even linked, somewhat fancifully, with a January transfer to Liverpool and Chelsea.

But the transfer rumours confirmed Jones' success and vindicated Keane for taking a punt on the striker after he ended the 2006/07 season as one of the Championship's top scorers, netting 14 league goals in 25 starts with Southampton.

The midfielder joined Saints on a two-year student visa, as he is from a Commonwealth country, in July 2004 for a nominal fee from W-Connection in his homeland.

He started his career with Joe Public before moving to W-Connection in 2002.

The player had previously had trials with Manchester United, Middlesbrough, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Glasgow Rangers.

Jones has represented his country at all levels. He captained the Under-20s and made his full debut against Finland in January 2003, aged only 19.

Saints loaned Jones to League One side Sheffield Wednesday in mid-December 2004 and was a revelation. Paul Sturrock, who had made Jones his first Southampton signing, had moved on to be manager at Hillsborough.

After scoring on his debut in a 4-0 victory at Doncaster Rovers he netted seven goals in his first six matches. Wednesday attempted to sign the player permanently, but their offer of £100,000 was way too low.

On his return to Saints, Jones promptly netted in his first reserve outing. He had only got his first goal for the reserves days before joining Wednesday - meaning he was on a run of nine goals in nine games all-told.

Harry Redknapp then used Jones as a replacement for Anders Svensson for his Premiership debut and was handed his first start in the away game at Birmingham City. But, deployed out on the right flank, Jones looked lost and was replaced at half time by transfer window signing Henri Camara.

Back down the pecking order, Jones was out on loan again in mid-February, linking up with Championship side Stoke City, before returning to Saints as a transformed striker to earn his move to the Premier League in 2007.