The second act: Jon Bleby’s journey to shaping England’s next generation at the Junior Hockey World Cup

He once walked away from the sport at the peak of his powers with his future looking fuzzy. Now, he’s been pacing the dugout for 16 years as a coach, giving it back to the same game that he was once apprehensive of.

Meet Jon Bleby, the head coach of England at the FIH Junior World Cup 2025. The 46-year-old is a celebrated veteran in his part of the world. He has already scaled the coaching ladder, moving up from the junior categories to be the assistant coach and also the team manager of the Great Britain and England senior men’s team. But he has made himself at home with the Under-21 side, choosing to guide the younger generation to the top level.

“I love working with this age group. It’s been a long journey with the U-21s. What we’ve built over the years, and I think we’ve got a really talented team now. It’s really rewarding to see players develop, to go through the U-21s into the senior team,” Bleby told Sportstar on the sidelines of the Junior World Cup.

Bleby’s journey with the hockey stick began at five, playing for the Plymouth Hockey Club right by the English Channel. Joining Loughborough University, one of the top universities for sports in the UK at the time, helped Bleby take a step closer towards representing his country.

He made his debut for England against Poland in 2001 but called it quits in 2003, just six caps into his international sojourn, unable to balance play with the responsibilities of a career.

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“It was very difficult. [The balance] was one of the reasons I stepped away a little bit. Players are very lucky these days. There’s money, and you can earn a good living playing hockey. For me, when I started playing internationally, we had to be full-time students and go out to work and earn money,” the former defender explained.

The sabbatical lasted only two years, and Bleby was back ahead of the preparatory matches for the 2006 World Cup in Monchengladbach, Germany. The Three Lions finished fifth. He was also a key part of the Great Britain squad that qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where they came fifth again – the best finish since the 1998 Seoul Olympics, where they won gold.

FILE PHOTO: Bleby (right) was also a key part of the Great Britain squad that qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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After 54 caps for England and 37 appearances for Great Britain, the defender retired in 2009, immediately taking up the role of coach at Loughborough and with the England U-18s. Since then, Bleby has taken charge of more than 130 games across different levels. His crowning achievement he says, was winning the Sultan of Johor Cup four times.

“We love going every year to Malaysia for the Sultan of Johor Cup, which is an amazing tournament. We’ve won that luckily four times. We made the final of the Junior European Cup (2019) and won our first silver medal for a long, long time (since 1998). So that was very rewarding as well,” Bleby opined.

What would Jon Bleby be up to if he had not opted to come back in 2006?

“I was studying to be a strength and conditioning trainer. I would have been in the same dugout as an S&C coach,” he said with a grin. “I got selected for a few tournaments, so my life went down a different path.”

Published on Dec 05, 2025