12th tier club Newsome bring former Premier League and EFL player Cameron Jerome out of retirement with a surprise signing.
The 39 year old joins the Yorkshire Amateur League side, who currently sit bottom of their division with 7 points from 8 games played, but have games in hand over sides above them.
Jerome appeared in a friendly for Stockport against Derby in July 2024, months on from playing in Bolton’s League One playoff final defeat. But decided to retire from the playing side of the game December 2024.
Just a year later, he returns to the pitch, playing for fun and fitness, lured by club ties and new coaches Alex Thomas and Jamie Jobarteh.
🚨 TRANSFER NEWS 🚨
BOOM — He’s here.
Cameron Jerome signs for Newsome FC! ❤️⚽️Ex Cardiff, Birmingham & Norwich.
650+ games. 140+ goals.
Power, pace & huge experience.An Absolute Prodigious addition to the squad.
Welcome home, Cameron.#WhosTheBoys #NewsomeFC #NewSigning pic.twitter.com/pJzWI6BAsN— Newsome Football Club 🔴⚫ (@NewsomeFC) November 26, 2025
Newsome FC have sent shockwaves through grassroots football after signing former Premier League striker Cameron Jerome @NewsomeFC https://t.co/T0xT4yn4mx
— Huddersfield Hub (@HuddsHub) November 29, 2025
Jerome, who won’t be paid by Newsome, said per Huddersfield Hub: “It’s just to enjoy football socially and keep fit. I just want to enjoy a kick around with the lads without it being too serious.
“Knowing some people who are involved with the club and some players who play, it made sense to me.”
Newsome spokesman Paul Farrell said: “There’s been so much interest since we announced it and the media have picked up on it too. They’ve called us ‘rock bottom Newsome’ because we’re bottom of the league.
“But we’ve got new head coaches and we’ve signed some good players. Cameron will have good players around him and we’ve got another two coming in, one is a former semi-pro.
“The only way is up!”
JEROME’S CAREER:
Youth career
Huddersfield Town
Grimsby Town
Sheffield Wednesday
Senior
2003–2004 – Middlesbrough
2004–2006 – Cardiff City – 79 games (27 goals)
2006–2011 – Birmingham City – 202 games (42 goals)
2011–2014 – Stoke City – 67 games (12 goals)
2013–2014 → Crystal Palace (loan) – 29 games (2 goals)
2014–2018 – Norwich City – 138 games (42 goals)
2018 – Derby County – 20 games (6 goals)
2018–2020 – Göztepe – 54 games (8 goals)
2020–2021 – Milton Keynes Dons – 38 games (15 goals)
2021–2023 – Luton Town – 61 games (6 goals)
2023–2024 – Bolton Wanderers – 55 games (4 goals)
Total – 743 games (164 goals)
International career
2005–2008 – England U21 – 10 games (0 goals)
When asked by The Sportsman what he was up to back in December 204, Jerome replied: “Well, officially retired. Obviously, that came around in the summer.
“At the moment, I have been working on a consultancy business which I have set up, mentoring strikers and helping to develop their understanding of what they are good at and not good at.
“It is going good, I am really enthusiastic about it at the moment. It has been quite a challenging four or five months but I am learning every day.
“I sort of morphed into – during the last three years of my career, 18 months at Luton and 18 months at Bolton – being that senior pro around the dressing room and helping the younger strikers.
“I kind of morphed into the role anyway and when I was thinking about what I wanted to do… was I was going to finish or carry on playing? I had offers to play but then I thought I was delaying what I wanted to get into.
On taking up a new role and the impact he hopes to have on players and clubs who work with him: “I am so passionate about this and have learnt a lot to do with data, recruiting and things like that.
“I thought, ‘How can I marry the things I am most keen on and interested in to do something that is going to help people?’ – I can either help individuals privately, which I am doing, or help clubs recruit strikers.
“They are the biggest assets around in football, as everybody knows, they command the most transfer fees.
“It is in everyone’s best interests for strikers to be firing. I did a lot of studying – learning the data, what that tells you and how to understand it.
“And just mentoring, I look back at my career at certain moments and teams where you might be struggling for form. The team might not be performing or yourself as an individual, the goals might not be coming.
“How do you then speak to somebody who will give you impartial, positive or negative feedback? It is honesty and openness.”
On his move from Luton to Bolton, in January 2023, a tough time off the pitch a difficult period off the pitch: “Circumstances changed. We had an incident, a burglary, at home when I was away. My family was up here and I was commuting.
“I just had to stop playing football for a couple of months, I was going to retire at that point. I thought, ‘I can’t commute down there, it is not going to work’.
“I spoke to the club and Rob Edwards persuaded me to come in one day a week and sort of be around the club, the players, because he was building something and there was momentum.
“I set off at 5.30 and drove to Luton, trained and drove back to Manchester. That was quite taxing and I told Rob that I couldn’t do it. He didn’t want me to go but understood my decision, so I went to Bolton.”
