Jeremy Constantinidis

Ieremias Panayiotis Constantinidis (born 5 July 1988), often simply known as Jeremy and formerly Jezza (Greek: Τζέρεμι Κωνσταντινίδης), is an English midfielder for West London Warriors.

With a cool first touch and a great passing vision, Jeremy is obviously a talented player. However, his earlier days were marked by frequent off-field indiscretions that cast doubt in the eyes of fans about his potential.

But having finally matured after his move to West London, in 2018 he was the keystone of the England team that won the CSA World Cup and was named the Golden Ball for his efforts.

Early career
Constantinides is a graduate of the London Clarets academy and made his debut for the first team in November 2007. In his rookie season, 2007-08, he was used frequently as a winger/wide midfielder. The following season, however, saw him get more time in his favoured central midfield position. He soon revelled in his new role, and attracted the attention of BritLeague such as London United and Real Birmingham. With his deadly crossing and set-pieces, and ever-changing hairstyles, Jezza was labelled as the "new David Beckham". Jezza signed a contract extension with the Clarets until 2013.

In 2009-10, Jezza continued from where he left off, starting the season in barnstorming form. BritLeague side FC London, on the other hand, had a huge gap in their midfield, with Bradley Hatfield out with a long-term knee injury. Having seen an initial £6m bid for Jezza rejected in December 2009, FCL increased it to £8.5m which was accepted by the Clarets and Jezza joined FC London on 1 January 2010 after completing his medical.

FC London
He made his FCL debut for the club in the pre-season BritLeague Cup, which the club won in February 2010 beating Sheffield Strikers in the final.

He made his BritLeague debut in March 2010 against Glasgow FC, where he had a decent game. He scored his first goal in the BritLeague with the winner in the famous 5-4 win over London Town, where FCL stunningly came back after being 4-0 down at half-time.

After a stunning goal against Leeds Lightning, in which he brought down a long Scott Casey pass with the instep of his right foot, and then in the next motion, lobbed the ball over Mike Foster to score, he was then sent off the next match against Sheffield Strikers for a shocking two-footed lunge on Paolo Baggola.

He also helped FC London reached the final of the Club Championship, losing in the final in Amsterdam to London Town.

All in all, Jeremy Constantinidis made 29 appearances in the league that season scoring seven goals. He capped off this sensational year, with the BritLeague Newcomer of the Year, winning ahead of Real Birmingham is Kyle Johnson.

He started 2011 off slowly, with injury trouble hampering his progress, but he soon picked up form middle of the season finishing with 21 appearances and six goals. In 2012, he missed only four league games, making 34 appearances and scoring seven goals, and also appeared in the European Champions' League for the first time, helping the club reach the quarter-finals where they were beaten by Paris Predators. He was also a key player in helping FCL reach the England Cup final, where they lost to London Town.

Behind the scenes, contract negotiations broke down. Jezza wanted wages of £100,000 a week but FCL were unwilling to pay him that much. So in December 2012, Jeremy Constantinidis released an official statement that he put in a transfer request:

"I have decided my time at FC London is up. I have spoken to the manager and the chairman and they have tried to convince me to stay. But I feel now is time for a new challenge to help my career." -- Jezza's statement

Among the clubs interested was Barcelona Bulldogs, SV Mungenstadt, Milan Madness and close to home, Manchester Rockers, Real Birmingham, West London Warriors and recently crowned BritLeague champions London United.

Jezza's contract still had two more years left to run, but United - who Constantinidis is a boyhood fan of - met his £28m release clause, and much to the dismay of FC London fans, Jezza joined the club for the 2013 season.

London United
Jezza made his official United debut in the 2-1 European Super Cup win against city rivals London Town in Monaco on 15 March 2013, setting up the winner for Rodrigo Santos. His BritLeague debut for the club came in the 4-0 thrashing of Leicester Phantoms in the annual Friday night curtain-raiser, in which he scored the fourth goal with a crisp 20-yard shot.

He even managed to score a free-kick on his old ground against FC London, amidst a hostile atmosphere. This early form saw him called up for the MegaCup for England.

After picking up in said tournament, however, Jezza's form became erratic and he became United's "Jekyll and Hyde" player, meaning he could play well one week, then really bad the next.

Nonetheless, he continued to be used heavily by manager Bobby Hutchinson, amid reports of a revolt in the dressing room due to Constantinidis's antics.

He suffered an injury in the England Cup semi-final, which led to him missing the final, which United lost heavily to Sporting Club Sheffield, 5-1.

Hutchinson resigned in wake of that defeat, plus a disastrous 6th place finish, to be replaced by Mungenstadt's German manager Bernd Strauss.

FC Nottingham
After Strauss announced Constantinidis was not in his plans, Jeremy moved on loan to FC Nottingham for 2014, because his BFF and ex-FCL teammate Scott Casey was playing there.

Jeremy and FCN mutually agreed to end the loan in July 2014, with the midfielder saying he was unhappy in Nottingham.

He then launched a stunning attack on the city itself saying: "Nottingham is such a horrible place. The people were so rude to me everytime we lost. They expect too much from me. A lot of them smell like stinky garlic. Steven Sturgis (the referee) and Robin Hood are the only guys that I know from there and Robin's dead. Yeah, it was like living in a goldfish bowl, but maybe that's offensive towards goldfish."

England
Before the 2010 CSA World Cup, Jezza was called up to the preliminary England squad. Previously Jezza had played for the England Under-21s, starring in their successful 2009 European Championship campaign on home soil, and had snubbed a call from CSA Greece in order to get an England cap.

He made his England debut against Russia in May 2010. However, he played extremely poorly, giving the ball away many times. As he was substituted off, the England fans booed and whistled him with catcalls and shouts of "F*** off you Greek b******". Jezza was offended by this and flashed a middle-finger sign at the England fans. Manager Marco Garibaldi was less than impressed and sent Jezza home, ending his World Cup hopes.

Greece
In August 2010, Jezza, of Greek-Cypriot heritage on his father's side, announced that he wanted to play for Greece instead, still being eligible too since he had not featured for England in a competitive match. That same month, he got his first cap in a friendly against Norway. Jezza played superbly in a 0-0 draw and was named the man of the match by Greek television.

In September 2010, he ran the show against Romania in the opening CSA EuroCup 12 qualifier scoring an absolute screamer which had no chance for the Romanian goalkeeper. Greece went on to win 4-1.

Greece went onto qualify for EuroCup 12, after seeing off Switzerland in the play-offs.

Jezza was ever-present in the finals in Russia playing in all three of Greece's group games in Group D. In the opening game in Moscow, against Germany, he was largely kept quiet as the Germans won 4-1. Greece had previously played the Germans in the qualifiers, and Jezza, in particular, gave them a hard time impressing in both matches, particularly the one in Berlin where the Greeks escaped with a 2-2 draw.

The next match Greece played was in St. Petersburg against the Czech Republic. The Greeks won 3-0 with Jezza scoring the final goal after a calamitous error from Czech goalkeeper Frantisek Fremecek after Jezza had a hand in the two goals by striker Ilias Mantzidis.

The final group game against Scotland in Kazan was a must-win for both sides. Scotland had got off to a disastrous start with a 5-0 thumping by the Czechs, before unexpectedly beating Germany 2-0 to leave all four teams in the group on three points after the first two rounds. Greece went a goal behind to Craig Wisniewski before Mantzidis equalised after Jezza's shot was saved by Scotland stopper Stuart McDonald. The game finished 1-1, and eliminated both Scotland and Greece, as Germany and the Czech Republic drew 0-0 and went through thanks to their superior goal difference.

International retirement and comeback controversy
Following the tournament, Jezza shocked the world of football when he announced his retirement from international football at the age of just 24, citing stress.

Not long later, Jezza's agent, Christopher MacDougall, made him aware that he could switch his allegiance back to England if he wanted to, thanks to a controversial CSA Football rule change that players who play for a nation at youth level but then go on to play for another country at senior level could switch back to the former, provided they had not played for the latter for at least three months. In November 2012, Jezza announced his intentions to represent England again, which caused outrage in Greece.

England again
Jezza made his second debut for England, almost three years after his first, against Brazil in February 2013 appearing late in the second half when he replaced James Douglas.

He scored his first England goal in a World Cup 2014 qualifier against Romania - ironically the side he got his first Greece goal against.

He was called up to the MegaCup 2013 squad in Australia and New Zealand, appearance in short cameos in the group games against Australia and Ghana, before being handed his first start in the final group game against the USA. He was dropped for the semi-final against Uruguay but then appeared off the bench in the final against Italy, scoring the final goal as England won 4-0.

Despite playing a starring role in the tournament, Jezza soon found himself out of favour with England because the many bad relations he has with the rest of the dressing room. One story has Jezza playing cards with members of the team, and after losing, he went bananas and abused the other participants. Another story has the senior England players at one table, the newer players at another, and Jezza sat at a third table, all by himself.

Players were also incensed by Jezza's enormous ego, and was adamant Jezza's mere presence, no matter how talented he was as a football player, was going to destroy their chances of winning the World Cup.

Finally, Jezza came under heavy criticism for his work rate, or rather lack of it, and Ian Clarke the England manager referred to Jezza as a "loose cannon."

The Casey and Jezza reunion at FCN rejuvenated the duo and led to Constantindis receiving a shock call-up to the standby list for the England CSA World Cup squad.

But then disaster struck.

Shortly after being named on the standby list, Constantindis was arrested for an alleged involvement in a match-fixing scandal. Because of this, he was replaced on the list by Danny Defranco. Eventually, the charges against him were dropped after it revealed he was set-up by an undercover reporter who got Jeremy heavily intoxicated - Jeremy himself has hazy recollections of what happened that night but remembers waking up the next morning with a severe hangover.

After the ordeal, Jeremy played intermittently in the CSA EuroCup 16 qualifiers, having impressed for West London Warriors, scoring two goals in five games.

Come EuroCup 16, Jeremy found himself on the bench despite his hot form in the first half of BritLeague season, with Clarke preferring Craig Craico as his playmaker. He made late appearances in wins against Austria and Belgium - replacing Craico on both occasions - before starting against the Czech Republic. He played an absolute blinder, scoring a free-kick and playing a beautiful long ball for the second goal in a 2-0 win. Another late cameo against the Republic of Ireland followed, before being left on the bench as Switzerland comprehensively outplayed England in all departments.

Clarke resigned immediately after the debacle, and Bobby Hutchinson took his place, a manager who frequently used Jeremy as manager of London United. Craico's retirement from international football meant Jeremy supplanted the Geordie as both playmaker and wearer of the England No. 8 shirt (having previously worn 21).

Jeremy played some great football in the CSA World Cup 2018 qualifiers as England qualified at a canter. On top of this he was on the shortlist in both 2016 and 2017 for the CSA World Player of the Year.

Playing in his first CSA World Cup, despite the fact he turned 30 during it, he owned the tournament and topped it off with a stunning free-kick in the final to win the World Cup and the Golden Ball of the tournament.

Endorsements
Jezza wears adidas boots. In his Clarets days, he wore Nike, but upon joining FCL, he began wearing Predators. For the first half of 2012 however, he apparently had a dispute with the company, and he wore Nike Total 90 Lasers up to the end of EuroCup 12. However, since then he has returned to adidas, albeit in F50 AdiZeros.

However in early 2014, he has randomly been seen in Puma, Nike and even Warrior boots.

He also appears in adverts for Tiger energy drinks.


 * Personal life**

Jeremy's cousin, Alexis, also plays for football. Alexis plays for London Clarets, Jeremy's first professional club.