Jermaine Jones to Sign With MASL's Ontario Fury
Jermaine Jones will become the next ex-U.S. men's national team star to have a go in the MASL.
Jones has signed with the arena soccer league's Ontario Fury and will be presented at a press conference on Tuesday, SI.com can confirm. The news was first reported by Hoy Los Angeles.
The California-based club touted the announcement of a former USMNT and FIFA World Cup star for Tuesday, and that player will be the 37-year-old Jones. His arrival follows that of Landon Donovan, with the USMNT and MLS all-time leading scorer joining the San Diego Sockers two months ago.
Jones has largely been inactive as a player since his last season in MLS in 2017. He played one match for the Ventura County Fusion in the PDL last year and has been working on becoming a coach, finding a gig with Real So Cal's academy. Outside of his 69 caps and four goals with the U.S. national team, his playing career included time with Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke in his native Germany and stops at Blackburn and Besiktas before he joined MLS after the 2014 World Cup. Following a run with the New England Revolution–to whom he was allocated with the infamous Blind Draw–Jones played for the Colorado Rapids and LA Galaxy to wind down his career.
It's not fully over, though, and now that he'll be in MASL, Jones will have the chance to go up against Donovan on April 4, when the Fury meet the Sockers. It will be a battle of Pacific Division foes, with the first-place Sockers (16-1) running away from the third-place Fury (8-11).
