30/04/2026
Welcome To Our Newest CCFPA Member – It’s Jay Bothroyd!
https://www.ccfpa.co.uk/?p=142793 full link
We are delighted to welcome former Sky Blue striker Jay Bothroyd to membership of this Assocation.
Before last Sunday’s final home game of the season against Wrexham husband and wife CCFPA committee members Richard and Sarah Morris spotted Jay was part of the SKY TV commentary team covering the match and pounced!
Jay, who started his footballing journey of over two decades with the Sky Blues a the start of the millennium was very pleased to join us on a busy day for him.
Jay received his Association tie and membership badge from the pair before completing his pre-match preparations as part of the SKY TV team interviewing, amongst others, CCFC’s Head Coach Frank Lampard before the 3-1 win over the Welsh play-off hopefuls.
In a long day post-match the TV team gave continuous and extensive coverage of the joyous atmosphere in the Arena throughout the game but especially post-match when the Championship trophy and medals were presented to Club Owner, Doug King, Frank, Sky Blues captain (and CCFPA’s Player of the Season’) Matt Grimes and the CCFC squad. There was much rejoicing and ecstatic celebration from CCFC staff and fans alike long into the night.
Jay was discovered by Arsenal‘s Academy (and played against us when we lost the 1999-2000 F.A.Youth Cup Final to the Gunners). His promise was such that CCFC paid £1m for him in July 2000 (though he had yet to play for the Arsenal first team). Jay made his Sky Blue debut on 4th November that Sky Blue relegation year in a 2–1 Premier League home defeat to Manchester United. After 10 outings he had to wait three matches into the next season to net his debut goal scored on 24 August 2001 in a 1-2 defeat at Bradford City but went on in his third CCFC season (2002-03) to become the Sky Blues’ top-scorer with 11 goals. In total Jay scored 17 times in his 83 first team appearances.
When his contract ran out at the end of 2003 he chose a move to Italian Serie A club Perugia where he did ok in 2003-04 but apparently suffered racism and consequently played 11 times (scoring once) on loan back in the UK with Blackburn Rovers for the following season. Released by the Italian outfit he joined blackburn’s fellow Premier League side Charlton Athletic in August 2005 for a season then moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers for full two seasons of Championship football (also playing a handful of games for Stoke on loan in 2007-08).
From August 2008 Jay saw out all three years of his contract with Welsh Championship club Cardiff City scoring 45 goals in his 133 games for the Bluebirds before moving up to the Premier League again with Queens Park Rangers for a couple of seasons (including a spell on loan at Championship side Sheffield Wednesday). After half a year as a free agent Jay saw out the rest of his career until hanging up his boots in 2022 abroad. First in January 2024 he helped out Thai Premier League club Muangthong United and then continued knocking in the goals first (February 2015) with Japanese J2 League club Júbilo Iwata and then stepping up to J1 League outfit Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo from July 2017. In his long career (2000-22) Jay knocked in an impressive 175+ goals in at least 600 games.
Jay received (sparsely) junior caps for his country from 1999-2001 at U16, U18, U20 and U21 levels gaining his sole England Full Cap on 13th November 2010 coming on as a second-half substitute in his country’s 2–1 friendly defeat to France. Since stopping playing Jay has done plenty of media work (as above) and has even appeared in episodes of the popular football based TV series Ted Lasso.
Welcome Jay! We look forward to seeing you, not only commentating on future Sky Blue games for SKY TV, but also joining with us for Association reunions and events plus attending as our guest other Sky Blues games in the Premier League in 2026-27!
