Ian Jeffs


Ian David Jeffs is an English former footballer and the current assistant manager of the Icelandic women's national football team and Úrvalsdeild karla club ÍBV. Úrvalsdeild kvenna club ÍBV.
Jeffs began his career with Crewe Alexandra but made only one senior appearance for the club before being released in 2004. He was loaned to Kidsgrove Athletic for a short spell during the 2002–03 season. Jeffs has spent the majority of his career playing in Iceland, where he has represented ÍBV, Fylkir and Valur. Between 2006 and 2007 he played for Swedish side Örebro, where he was part of the side that won promotion to the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football.

Playing career

Born in Chester, Jeffs came through the youth ranks at Crewe Alexandra and was awarded his first professional contract in February 2001 along with eleven other academy graduates, including Dean Ashton, David Vaughan and Michael Higdon. His first involvement in senior football came during a loan spell at non-league side Kidsgrove Athletic in the 2002–03 season. On 16 May 2003, it was announced that he and teammate Tom Betts were to join newly promoted Icelandic Úrvalsdeild outfit ÍBV on loan for the duration of the 2003 campaign. Jeffs made his debut for the club two days later in a 2–3 home defeat to KA. In his third appearance for ÍBV, he scored the only goal in a 1–0 home win over Fylkir as the team recorded their first victory of the season. He was almost ever-present in the ÍBV starting line-up during the first two months of the season, appearing in 11 out of 12 league and cup matches; an injury sustained in the 0–2 defeat to Þróttur kept him out of the 4–5 penalty shootout loss to Grindavík in the fourth round of the Icelandic Cup. Jeffs went on to play all but two of ÍBV's league matches in the 2003 season, scoring three goals in the process.
Jeffs and Betts returned to Crewe at the end of their loan period and were given international clearance to play for the Railwaymen following the re-opening of the transfer window on 1 January 2004. Jeffs went on to make his debut for the club two days later, coming on as a second-half substitute for Ben Rix as Crewe were beaten 0–1 at home by Telford United in the third round of the FA Cup. He was never selected to play for the club again and was released at the end of the 2003–04 campaign, having already agreed to return to ÍBV on a permanent basis for the 2004 season.

Career statistics

Managing career

Jeffs was the manager of ÍBV women's football team from 2015 to 2018 and ÍBV men's football team in 2016. In late 2018, he was hired as the assistant manager to the Icelandic women's national football team and as an assistant to ÍBV men's football team.