Shirts for Jordan

The footballing world rallies following the tragic loss of former Huddersfield Town midfielder, with ‘Shirts For Jordan‘. Jordan Sinnott was found unconscious in Nottingham at around 2am on Saturday 25^th January.

The 25-year-old midfielder sustained a fractured skull and later died in hospital. Police say that they attended a ‘large-scale fight’ involving 8 men and women in a pub car park in Grove Street at around half-past eleven on the Friday before. A few hours later, Sinnott was found in Retford’s Market Place following a subsequent ‘large-scale’ incident.[i]

While simultaneously planning Jordan’s funeral, Tom Sinnott, Jordan’s older brother, and his family had the idea to arrange to have a football shirt from each of the teams that Jordan had played for in his career and the idea began to snowball from there.

Within an hour or two of asking Jordan’s football mates to help, they had successfully organised for the majority of the teams in the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two to donate a shirt with ‘Sinnott 25’ on the back.

Notable names such as Steven Gerrard (Liverpool legend and current Rangers manager), Jordan Henderson (current Liverpool captain) and Liam Cooper (current Leeds United captain, below) have all gotten involved in promoting the gesture. Following the funeral, the family is planning to donate every shirt received to Sport Relief.[ii]

Supporting @JordanShirts

Fly High Sinbad from everyone @LUFC 💙💛 pic.twitter.com/HlKGtIhWrA

— Liam Cooper (@LiamCooper__) January 28, 2020

Jordan, the son of former Huddersfield Town captain Lee Sinnott, followed in his father’s footsteps and began his career at Huddersfield Town. After signing a professional contract the year before, he made his professional debut against Leicester City in the FA Cup in January 2013. He enjoyed an eight-year professional career that saw him also feature for Bury, Halifax Town, Chesterfield and Matlock Town.

He would also play under his father Lee at Altrincham. In what would be one of his final matches, on 14^th January, Jordan scored the first hattrick of his career in a 5-0 win over Basford United.

A murder inquiry was launched following Jordan’s death and currently, three men, all 21, remain in custody on suspicion of murder. A 20-year-old man was also questioned but later released without charge.

Tom stated that there were “not enough words to describe” his brother. He described the ‘Shirts for Jordan’ gesture as something that meant the world to him knowing that his brother, “even after he passed, is still bringing joy to people even if he didn’t know them.”[iii]

[i] BBC Source

[ii] BBC Source 2

[iii] BBC Source 3