Francis Jeffers

Francis Jeffers (born 25 January 1981) is an English football coach and former player, who was most recently a first-team coach at Oldham Athletic.

Jeffers started his career at his boyhood club Everton, making his debut in 1997 as a 16-year-old.

Jeffers began his career at Everton, making his first-team debut as a half-time substitute for Dave Watson on 26 December 1997 at Old Trafford at the age of 16 years.

Jeffers won the FA Youth Cup of 1997–98 against Blackburn Rovers with Everton.

He scored 6 goals in 28 matches for Everton in the 1999–2000 season.

Jeffers started the 2000–01 season brightly, but his season was cut short with multiple ankle and shoulder injuries.

When he did feature, he performed well, and his goal to game ratio was the best at the club that season.

This earned Jeffers a new contract offer from the club.

However, after months of negotiations, Jeffers informed the club he was rejecting the new contract.

After scoring 20 goals in 60 appearances for Everton, he signed for Arsenal in 2001.

His performances had caught the eye of Arsène Wenger, and Jeffers signed for Arsenal on 14 June 2001 for an initial £8 million fee, with another £2 million dependent on appearances.

However, Jeffers did not live up to the "fox in the box" tag, and his time at Arsenal was dogged by injury.

He was forced out of the team by the form of fellow strikers like Thierry Henry and Sylvain Wiltord.

Arsenal also won the 2001–02 Premier League title, but Jeffers only made six league appearances that season.

He was an unused substitute on the day Arsenal clinched the title against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

During his time at Arsenal, he won the FA Cup twice in 2002 and 2003 despite not being a member of either Cup Final squad.

Arsenal won the FA Cup in 2002 and 2003 but Jeffers was left out of both match day squads, the latter due to injury.

In February 2003, Jeffers made his senior debut for the England national team, scoring against Australia in his one senior cap for England.

He contributed to their 2003 triumph by scoring three goals en route to the final; two against Farnborough and one against Chelsea.

He also started the semi-final against Sheffield United.

His final appearance for Arsenal came in the 2003 FA Community Shield, coming on as a substitute but then getting sent off against Manchester United.

On 1 September 2003, Jeffers rejoined Everton on loan for 2003–04.

He only scored twice (with both goals coming against Fulham in the FA Cup; once in the original tie and again in the replay) in 22 appearances for his team, before falling out with manager David Moyes and prematurely returning to London.

In 2004, Jeffers joined Charlton Athletic, where he spent two seasons, including spending time on loan at Scottish club Rangers.

He signed for Arsenal's Premier League rivals Charlton Athletic on 10 August 2004 on a two-year contract for a £2.6 million fee.

In 2004–05, he scored 5 goals in 24 appearances.

He joined Rangers on loan on 31 August 2005 for six months but returned in December after his performances in the Scottish Premier League failed to live up to expectations.

Charlton released Jeffers at the end of the 2005–06 season.

He moved to Blackburn Rovers in 2006, spending one season at the Lancashire club, whilst also spending time out on loan at Ipswich Town in 2007.

He joined Sheffield Wednesday in 2007.

He spent three seasons at Wednesday, making 60 appearances for the club.

He left Sheffield Wednesday in 2010, moving to Australian side Newcastle Jets.

He left Newcastle Jets to move to Scottish club Motherwell in 2011, before returning to Australia to rejoin Newcastle Jets in October 2011.

After leaving Newcastle Jets in 2012, he joined Maltese side Floriana.

He returned to England in 2013 to join Accrington Stanley, before retiring from football after leaving Accrington in 2013.

Following his retirement from playing, he returned to Everton as a coach at the club's academy in 2014, later becoming a coach with the club's U23 side in 2018.

He left Everton in May 2021 to join Ipswich Town as a first-team coach, a role he held until December.

In September 2022 he joined National League side Oldham Athletic as first-team coach with additional responsibility for overseeing the introduction of the club's new B-team.

Jeffers was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, and attended De La Salle School in Croxteth.

He represented England at U15, U16, and U21 levels, becoming the joint-top scorer of the England U21 team after scoring 13 goals in 16 appearances, a record which he held up until 2020.