We declared three years ago that former Sky Blue attacker Simeon Jackson had become a member of this Association. The Sky Blues forward from just nine seasons ago is turning 37 today, so that gives us both even more reason to celebrate! Well done, Simeon!

Despite being born in Kingston, Jamaica on March 28, 1987, he was raised in Ontario, Canada, and as a teenager, he moved to south London to live with his grandmother in an attempt to pursue a career in professional football. He began his football career as a young player with the local Sunoco FC team in Canada. After a failed trial with Gillingham in the UK, he played for non-league Dulwich Hamlet. After he signed with League Two Rushden & Diamonds in 2004, things began to improve.

Despite having trials with both of the major Manchester clubs in 2005 and spending a month on loan at Rounds Town, Simeon led R&D in goals scored during his four seasons there, scoring 42 goals in 102 games. However, the team was demoted to the Conference halfway through Simeon’s tenure. After signing a £150,000 contract in January 2008, he eventually had the chance to play for the League One Gills. In his three seasons there, he nearly duplicated his previous performance, scoring 42 goals in 115 appearances!

Because of his remarkable strike rate, Simeon’s fellow CCFPA member Cody McDonald, a former Sky Blue striker, was enticed to sign a loan with League One Northampton in July 2010!

Actually, Simeon’s late goal against Pompey at the close of that season sealed the East Anglian club’s promotion to the Premier League for the Canaries. Before being let go at the end of the 2012–13 season, Simeon, who was frequently deployed as an impact player off the bench, scored 21 goals in his 85 appearances for the Canaries.

Simeon left the country the following season in search of a regular football contract, joining Eintracht Braunschweig, who had just been promoted to the Bundesliga. However, he only made ten appearances without scoring in just over half of the season before leaving to rejoin Millwall in January 2014 for the remainder of the Championship season, scoring two goals in his fourteen games with the Lions.

Jackson signed a one-year contract with Steven Pressley’s CCFC, then in League One, on August 18, 2014. He made his debut on August 19, 2014, (from the bench) in City’s 2-2 draw with Barnsley at Sixfields, Northampton, the club’s final “home” game before making its Ricoh Return.

On September 13, he scored his first goal for the Sky Blues—the game-winning goal—in a 2-1 victory over Yeovil Town at home, this time at the Ricoh. During the 2014–15 season, Simeon played thirty games (more than half off the bench) for the Sky Blues in all competitions, scoring three goals. Tony Mowbray was the Sky Blues’ manager when Simeon left CCFC.

Following the Sky Blues After a trial, Simeon signed with Barnsley, a League One rival of City, where he played 10 games before joining Blackburn Rovers for the second part of the 2015–16 campaign (two goals in nineteen games). After spending a few seasons at Walsall (scoring seven goals in 49 games), he was loaned to Grimsby Town, a League One team, for the final stretch of the 2017–18 campaign (scoring one goal in four games).

After netting six goals in 32 games with St. Mirren in September 2018, Simeon moved to Kilmarnock, a fellow Scottish Premier League team, but he only played four games there before concluding the 2019–20 season with League Two Stevenage Town (just five non-scoring games). Simeon played for National League South Chelmsford Town in 2020–21, although he only made two appearances and scored one goal before being loaned to King’s Lynn Town, where he ended the season with six goals in seventeen games. Simeon joined Chelmsford in July 2021 to serve as both the community ambassador and head of coaching.

It was revealed yesterday, March 27, 2024, that the 37-year-old has returned out of retirement to join non-league AFC Sudbury to help them push for promotion—possibly as a birthday present for himself!

Simeon has qualified for the national team seven times at the U19 level (2006–08) and 49 times (scoring six times) between 2009 and 2017 due to his residency there since he was three years old.

We wish Simeon a very happy birthday today and hope to see him soon at the CBS Arena for a Sky Blue game or a CCFPA function, club commitments permitting!

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