Vinnie Jones (Vincent Peter Jones, born January 5, 1965 in Watford) is a British footballer turned actor.

Jones started his football career at non-league Wealdstone, before moving to Wimbledon in 1986. He was part of the team that won the FA Cup in 1988, arguably the club's greatest achievement. He subsequently played for Leeds United, Sheffield United and Chelsea, before moving back to Wimbledon in 1992. He played over 250 games for the Dons, before briefly becoming player/coach of Queens Park Rangers in 1998.

While a footballer, he was famous for his "hard man" image. He was sent off 12 times in his career, and once was booked after only 5 seconds of play. In one notorious incident he distracted Paul Gascoigne by grabbing his testicles. [1] He also was the presenter of the infamous Soccer's Hard Men video released in 1992, which featured archived footage of himself and many other "hard men" of the game, and included advice for budding "hard men". After the release of the video, Jones received a £20,000 fine from The FA for "bringing the game into disrepute."

A high point in his career as a footballer was when he was chosen to play international soccer for Wales, after the discovery that his ancestry qualified him; he even captained the side. Despite his Welsh name, it was considered ironic that someone so blatantly English could be selected for one of the other home countries; his reputation alone would have made him an unlikely choice for the England side.

Jones retired from football in 1999, and has since found success as an actor, appearing in films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Mean Machine, Swordfish and Eurotrip. He also appeared in a series of UK TV advertisements for Bacardi. In Mean Machine, Jones played a famous footballer.

In December 2003 Jones was convicted of air rage offences committed on a flight the previous May. Following his conviction Bacardi withdrew the ads in which Jones appeared.

External links

• Vinnie Jones' official homepage