Jon Magee

DOB: 9th February 1972

Position: Striker

Season of first appearance: 1997/98

Season of last appearance: 1997/98

Full Appearances: 12

Substitute: 14

Goals: 10

Also played for:

Glenavon (Northern Ireland), Dungannon Swifts (Northern Ireland), Linfield (Northern Ireland), Bangor (Northern Ireland), Kettering Town, Burton Albion, Portadown (Northern Ireland), Distillery (Northern Ireland) and St Leonard's Stamcroft 

Player Profile:

Prolific Northern Irish marksman born in Lurgan, County Armagh, who was particularly strong in the air and spent much of his career in his home country.

Jon started off with Glenavon and made one substitute appearance for the first-team as a teenager during the 1988/89 season.

In August 1989, he joined Dungannon Swifts before being signed by reigning Irish League champions Linfield in January 1990.

Jon spent three years with the Belfast club who played at Windsor Park, the national team's stadium, and, after scoring eight goals in a total of 51 first-team appearances (29 as sub), he moved on to Bangor in January 1993.

Jon joined Bangor shortly before his 21st birthday and he was part of the side that won the Irish Cup in May 1993 as Bangor beat Ards 1-0 in a second replay after two 1-1 draws. The cup win meant that Bangor qualified for the 1993/94 Cup Winners Cup competition and Jon featured as they lost 3-2 on aggregate to Cypriot club Apoel Nicosia in the Preliminary Round.

On 22.3.94, he made a substitute appearance for Northern Ireland's Under-21 side in a 0-0 home draw with Romania and that meant Jon had played for his country at every youth level, taking in the schoolboy, Under-15, 16 and 18 sides.

In May 1994, he played as Bangor lost 2-0 to Linfield in the Irish Cup Final but despite the defeat the club again qualified for the Cup Winners Cup as Linfield had also won the league. Jon started in both legs as Bangor lost 5-0 on aggregate to Tatran Presov of Slovakia in August 1994.

In September 1994, Jon had his first taste of English football when Bangor loaned him to Kettering and he made two substitute appearances for them in the Conference. He also had a loan spell with Burton Albion before returning to Northern Ireland.

In all, Jon scored 32 goals in 76 appearances for Bangor (11 as sub) before linking up with Portadown in August 1995.

In October 1995, he was on the move again, joining Distillery, and in December 1995 Jon moved on to his third club of the 1995/96 campaign when he signed for Dungannon Swifts.

In July 1996, he returned to England and joined Southern League club St Leonard's Stamcroft. Jon scored 39 goals for them during 1996/97 and his tally included four hat-tricks. He was on target as St Leonard's beat Margate 3-2 at home in a Southern League Cup tie on 11.12.96 and got both goals in a 2-2 home draw with Margate on 31.3.97. Jon stayed with St Leonard's for the start of the 1997/98 season but didn't play until November 1997 due to injury. He scored two goals after regaining his fitness before he was sold to Margate for a fee of £8,000 on 3.12.97. It was the most Margate had ever spent on a player and the most that St Leonard's had received for one.

Jon made his debut in a 1-1 draw at Weymouth on 6.12.97 and scored his first goal in his next appearance as Margate beat Weymouth 2-1 at Hartsdown Park on 13.12.97. It was the start of a run of four consecutive matches that Jon scored once in and the next in the sequence was a 2-1 win at Hastings on 16.12.97. Jon then found the net in a 4-1 win at Witney on 20.12.97 and the Thanet Times said he "looked a cut above the average". The four-game scoring run finished with a last second equaliser to earn Margate a 1-1 draw at Tonbridge on 26.12.97. The Thanet Times said that Jon "gave his colleagues an object lesson in the art of finishing" as his goal secured a 1-0 home win over Fisher on 1.1.98 and on 6.1.98 he scored in a 4-0 thrashing of his old club St Leonard's at Hartsdown Park. That goal meant that Jon had scored in six of his first seven games for Margate but he then picked up an ankle ligament injury in training. He missed the next match - an FA Trophy tie at Woking on 10.1.98 - due to being cup-tied and, after making a substitute appearance in a 3-0 home win over Dartford on 20.1.98, Jon's ankle problem meant that he didn't feature at all in Margate's next ten games.

On 7.3.98, he returned to action when he came off the bench to score in a 2-2 draw at Chelmsford and over the course of Margate's last 20 fixtures of the season Jon's injury restricted him to just four starts, although he made 12 substitute appearances. On 11.4.98, he scored after coming off the bench in a 2-1 win at Fisher and on 7.4.98 Jon came on as a substitute as Margate beat Redditch 2-0 in the First Leg of the Southern League Cup Final at Hartsdown Park.

On 15.4.98, he was a goalscoring sub in a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Yate on 15.4.98 and on 4.5.98 Jon played his last game as a sub in a 1-0 win at Gravesend & Northfleet that secured the Kent Senior Cup for Margate. Jon finished the season with a record of ten goals from 26 appearances, 14 of them as a sub - but didn't play for the club again.

During the summer of 1998 articles headlined "Margate record signing Magee has gone AWOL" and "Time to call in Poirot" appeared in the local press suggesting that Jon's whereabouts were unknown to Margate but that the club still held his registration. Director Keith Piper told the Thanet Times: "He was not only our record signing, but also our record disaster. I find his disappearance very hard to understand." Chairman Richard Piper told the paper that the club would be looking to recoup the fee paid for Jon. The Isle of Thanet Gazette wrote "all sorts of theories and rumours abound and it is one of the most bizarre stories to come out of local football for a long time". In 2002, Jon himself explained: "I decided to go down the academic route and get a full-time job which lead me to leave the area and have an ankle operation that, unfortunately, diagnosed with me arthritis and the medical advice was to cease playing there and then." He added that he'd "never played since so at least I went out on a high (the Kent Senior Cup Final) but ending at 26 was a very bad thing". Jon also said: "It is nice to see Margate going from strength to strength and I always look out for their results and read their reports in the Non League Paper."

His decision to "go down the academic route" ended up with Jon obtaining a host of qualifications including a Ph.D in 'International Labour Migration in English League Football' that earned him the title Dr Jonathan Magee.

In addition to his extensive academic achievements, Jon took part in three World Student Games - 1991, 1993 and 1995 - and played for Northern Ireland Universities, Ireland Universities and Great Britain Universities.

He was also a fully qualified Grade A UEFA coach and did some coaching with the Irish Football Association before his move to England. Jon then coached various sides in the UK and, in September 2000, he became UWIC Inter Cardiff's Director of Football. The role also meant he acted as the club's manager and they played in the League of Wales before being relegated to the Welsh League Division One. Jon left the job in June 2003.

Outside of football, he held various lecturing posts around England and in 2011 Jon was Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire's School of Sport, Tourism and The Outdoors.

His father Eric was a talented winger who played professionally for Oldham and Port Vale in the late 1960's. He also made over 300 appearances for Glenavon, Linfield, Bangor, Portadown and Distillery in Northern Ireland.