Curtin happy to make an example of Jones
CHESTER >> More effusive than usual, even by his gregarious standards, Jim Curtin took great pains Wednesday to point out what a momentous day it was in the Philadelphia Union’s history.
Unlike other press conferences around this time of year in the Union’s inauspicious transfer history, this one didn’t need much hype to convince.
The signing of Derrick Jones to a Homegrown contract was significant, not just because of the 19-yearold midfielder’s undeniable talent, not because it’s the first such Homegrown deal in four years.
Jones marks a significant milestone: The first graduate of the Union Academy and the first Bethlehem Steel player promoted to the first team. The 6-foot-4 midfielder epitomizes the promise brewing within a Union developmental system hailed as among the nation’s best that requires time to germinate.
“I was just excited,” Jones said. “I was just happy. I didn’t know where I was going to be four years ago.”
Portentous as Jones is as a symbol, his playing credentials are also significant. The first signing in Steel history has played 18 USL games, logging 1,478 minutes and scoring four goals and three assists, both team-bests.
The native of Bantama, Ghana moved to West Philadelphia in 2012, playing first for Junior Lone Star FC. He joined the Union’s Under-16 squad in 2013 and enrolled in the Union Academy in 2014. Jones left the school when he signed with Bethlehem in December 2015, training regularly with the Union first team throughout last summer after joining them in their preseason training camp in Florida.
“They helped me a lot,” Jones said. “It was good. I got to train twice a day. I spent my whole day over there. In terms of working on my fitness, it really helped me.”
Curtin profusely thanked the legion of coaches and staff involved in Jones’ development, from his family to Lone Star to staff at all level of the club for their influence. Curtin, who cut his teeth coaching the Union’s U-18 squad, has a heightened appreciation for the Union’s grow-local ethos.
“I want to be known as a coach that plays young players and gives them the opportunity to show what they can do,” Curtin said. “At some point, my dream is to have six or seven of them out there with the right mix of good international players sprinkled in and a competitive team that this team can embrace.”
Jones fits that profile. In contrast to the “privileged,” in Curtin’s words, suburban identity that predominates soccer’s pay-for-play youth ranks, Curtin paints Jones as “a fighter … a guy that didn’t have it easy.”
The final straw in the decision to sign Jones was his performance in the second half of a friendly with Crystal Palace July 13. After excelling in USL and holding his own in training with the first team, meeting the challenge of an English Premier League team indicated Jones was ready for the next step.
“It wasn’t a situation where it was do-or-die in terms of playing him against Crystal Palace,” Curtin said. “But it was like, ‘OK, this kid has done it now at the USL level, and he’s made big impacts on games and dominated for stretches; let’s see what he looks like with our group against a Premier League team.’ That was kind of the final — I hate to say it — test, but a little bit of a test, and he passed.”
Jones’s combativeness shows on the field, complementing his imposing size with deft touch that makes him ideal for a No. 8 midfield role. Union Academy director Tommy Wilson, in a team statement, likened him to Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure of Manchester City. Curtin localized the comparison to Columbus Crew midfielder Tony Tchani, Cameroon-born and American-educated, exposing him to wisdom from different schools of soccer thought.
Jones is one part of the Union’s long-term plan to replace Vincent Nogueira, who returned to France in June. Jones approaches the position differently than the diminutive Frenchman, more physical aggression than Nogueira’s heady interceptions and unceasing movement. But crucially, both are defense-first players, making their penchant for picking out an incisive pass in the attacking third or shifting the numerical balance with a late run into the box all the more valuable.
Jones also sets a precedent. He’s the first Union Homegrown signing since the ill-fated deal bestowed on Cristhian Hernandez in the spring of 2012, an embarrassingly long drought for a club espousing youth principles with little action to back it up. But part of the reason why Curtin wanted the deal done in the summer instead of waiting for the winter was to send the message that progress in the Academy and with a feeder club like Bethlehem can be rewarded with an MLS contract.
“The more we talked about it as a group, and again a lot goes into this decision, we saw him as a guy that belonged and that earned it,” Curtin said. “And that’s important to reward guys that earn it. We’re going to be a club that rewards young players that put the work in, and Derrick has done that.”