Jermaine Pennant

Jermaine Pennant

Personal information
Full name	Jermaine Lloyd Pennant
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Position(s)	Winger
Team information
Current team	Stoke City (on loan from Real Zaragoza)
Number	16
Youth career
1993–1998	Notts County
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1998–1999	Notts County	0	(0)
1999–2005	Arsenal	12	(3)
2002	→ Watford (loan)	9	(2)
2002–2003	→ Watford (loan)	12	(0)
2003–2004	→ Leeds United (loan)	36	(2)
2005	→ Birmingham City (loan)	12	(0)
2005–2006	Birmingham City	38	(2)
2006–2009	Liverpool	55	(3)
2009	→ Portsmouth (loan)	13	(0)
2009–	Real Zaragoza	25	(0)
2010–	→ Stoke City (loan)	0	(0)
International career‡
2001–2004	England U21	24	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 20:21, 15 March 2010 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17:12, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Jermaine Lloyd Pennant, born 15 January 1983, is an English footballer who plays for Stoke City in the Premier League, on loan from Spanish club Real Zaragoza. He gained notoriety in 2005, when he had to play a match while on probation—he played while wearing an electronic tag following a drink-driving conviction.

Early years

Jermaine Pennant was born in Nottingham, England to parents of Jamaican descent. His father Gary was a semi-professional footballer who inspired Pennant to play. At age three, Pennant's mother died of cancer. As a result, he helped raise his younger siblings, two sisters and one brother. Pennant recalls how as a child his favorite toy was a football, and how it rarely left his side.

Pennant, who grew up in a crime and drug infested neighborhood, credits football for saving him from a life of crime. When he was 14, he moved away from home and was living with YTS players who were 16,17, and 18. Notts County provided Pennant a safe haven.

Club career

Arsenal

Pennant was signed at the age of 15 by Arsenal from Notts County for £2 million, a record fee for a trainee at the time, but failed to fulfil his promise amidst a string of disciplinary problems.

Pennant's career seemed promising following his move to Arsenal. He made his debut aged 16 years and 319 days against Middlesbrough in the League Cup on 30 November 1999, making him Arsenal's youngest-ever first team player, beating Gerry Ward's long-standing record by two days. Pennant's record has since been surpassed by Cesc Fàbregas and Jack Wilshere. He continued to make League Cup appearances over the next few seasons, but had to wait two-and-a-half years for his league debut, as a substitute against West Ham United on 24 August 2002 in the Premier League.

At first, Pennant became homesick. After that subsided, he began to get sick from not playing. It affected him greatly. He played for Arsenal for seven years and only made five starts including the hat-trick on his full league debut, against Southampton in May 2003. However, these were also his only Arsenal league goals and he did not manage to secure a regular place in an Arsenal side that went on a run of 49 consecutive games without defeat. Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger appeared to have eventually lost patience with Pennant, who had a history of turning up late to training. Between 2002 and 2004, Pennant spent time on loan at Watford and Leeds United. Pennant received regular first-team action at Leeds, who were relegated at the conclusion of the 2003-04 season.

Birmingham City

Pennant was loaned to Birmingham City for the 2004-05 season. During his spell at Birmingham, he was arrested and convicted for drink-driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance. Despite his conviction, Pennant signed a permanent contract with Birmingham in April 2005. Following the 2005-06 season, Birmingham were relegated to the Championship, and speculation grew that Pennant would leave the club.

Liverpool

Pennant signed for Liverpool on 26 July 2006, on a four year contract for a fee of £6.7 million, potentially rising to £8 million with add-ons. After impressing in pre-season, Pennant made his Liverpool debut against Maccabi Haifa in a Champions' League 3rd round qualifying match at Anfield where he went on to win the fans' Star Man award. On 20 January 2007, he scored his first goal for Liverpool in their 2–0 home victory over Chelsea in the Premier League. On 31 March, Pennant participated in a 4-1 win against his former club Arsenal. After not being chosen for the England squad to play Israel and Andorra in March 2007, Pennant expressed the lack of recognition from England manager, Steve McClaren, as 'frustrating'.

Pennant started the 2007-08 season in good form, putting in strong performances on either flank as Liverpool reached the top of the league table in the first month. He was however, again ignored by McClaren for the England team in their European qualifying matches against Israel and Russia, despite the backing of Liverpool manager Benitez. As Liverpool struggled to regain their good early season form following the international break, Pennant too could not maintain his form. On 18 September 2007, Pennant was sent off against FC Porto in Liverpool's opening Champions League match of the season.

In January 2009, Pennant was loaned out to Portsmouth, where he spent the second half of the 2008-09 season. He played 13 league games for Portsmouth without scoring a goal. Pennant was not offered a new contract by Liverpool following his return, and subsequently became a free agent when his contract expired on 1 July 2009.

Real Zaragoza

On 9 July 2009, Pennant passed a medical and signed a three year deal at Real Zaragoza. He made his La Liga debut first round of the season, and played for 71 minutes in Zaragoza's 1-0 win over CD Tenerife. The team have languished near the bottom of the table all season - his own performances have also been questioned. On 24 February 2010, he was reprimanded by coach José Aurelio Gay after turning up late for training three times in the space of two weeks; he was sent home on the third occasion and disciplined.

Stoke City

On 31 August 2010, the final day of the summer transfer window, Pennant agreed a 4-month loan deal with Premier League side Stoke City. Pennant made his debut for Stoke as a substitute in the Potters' home game against Aston Villa on 13 September 2010.

International career

Despite being of Jamaican descent, he has opted to represent England internationally; although he has played at under-21 level, he has not played for the senior team.

Whilst on the England Under-21 team, he was sent home by coach Howard Wilkinson for breaking a curfew before an important game against Turkey. He also was sent off for punching Niko Kranjčar in a game against Croatia under-21s. However, he did manage to make 24 appearances for the U21s in total, making him one of the ten most-capped Englishmen at this level.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1998–99||Notts County||Second Division||0||0||1||0||0||0||-||-||1||0 |- |1998–99||rowspan="4"|Arsenal||rowspan="4"|Premier League||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0 |- |1999–00||0||0||0||0||1||0||0||0||1||0 |- |2000–01||0||0||0||0||1||0||0||0||1||0 |- |2001–02||0||0||0||0||3||0||2||0||5||0 |- |2001–02||Watford||First Division||9||2||0||0||0||0||-||-||9||2 |- |2002–03||Arsenal||Premier League||5||3||0||0||1||0||1||0||7||3 |- |2002–03||Watford||First Division||12||0||2||1||0||0||-||-||14||1 |- |2003–04||Leeds United||rowspan="8"|Premier League||35||2||0||0||0||0||-||-||36||2 |- |rowspan="2"|2004–05||Arsenal||7||0||1||0||3||0||0||0||11||0 |- |rowspan="2"|Birmingham City||12||0||-||-||-||-||-||-||12||0 |- |2005–06||38||2||6||0||4||1||-||-||48||3 |- |2006–07||rowspan="3"|Liverpool||34||1||1||0||2||0||14||0||51||1 |- |2007–08||18||2||2||0||0||0||5||0||25||2 |- |rowspan="2"|2008–09||3||0||0||0||1||0||0||0||4||0 |- |Portsmouth||13||0||1||0||0||0||0||0||12||0 |- |2009–10||Real Zaragoza||La Liga||25||0||0||0||-||-||-||-||25||0 |- |2010–11||Stoke City||Premier League||0||0||0||0||0||0||-||-||0||0 |-

Template:Football player statistics 3185||12||14||1||16||1||22||0||237||14 Template:Football player statistics 5189||12||14||1||16||1||22||0||241||14 |}

Honours

Arsenal

Winner

• FA Community Shield: 2004
• FA Youth Cup: 2001

Liverpool

Winner

• FA Community Shield: 2006

Runner Up

• UEFA Champions League: 2006–07

Personal life

In February 2004, Pennant was given a sixteen month ban from driving after being seen driving in the wrong lane in Paddington, West London. On 23 January 2005, Pennant was arrested and charged with drink-driving after crashing his Mercedes into a lamp-post in Aylesbury, while serving a sixteen month driving ban and uninsured. During questioning, Pennant initially identified himself as his friend Ashley Cole. Pennant pleaded guilty to drink-driving and driving whilst disqualified, and he was sentenced to ninety days in prison on 1 March. He was released on parole after 30 days and immediately returned to playing for Birmingham, although he had to wear an electronic tag at all times, including while on the pitch. It emerged during the trial that he was illiterate.

In 2007, Pennant began dating glamour model Amii Grove. The two endured a tumultuous relationship which included infidelities. Upon finding CCTV footage of Pennant cheating, Grove destroyed £200,000 of Pennant's "designer gear". Following the domestic disturbance in July 2007, Pennant was arrested for a Section 5 public order offence — using words or behaviour likely to cause distress — for which he had to pay a fixed penalty fine.

Until January 2008, Pennant was dating Hollyoaks actress Jennifer Metcalfe. In October 2008, he reunited with former girlfriend Amii Grove following the death of her army officer brother and became engaged.

Shortly after his engagement, Pennant's father Gary was arrested on drug dealing charges. In early 2009, Pennant and Grove broke up and Pennant began dating Metcalfe again. Following his move to Spain, Pennant has since broken up with Metcalfe but the pair remain friends.

External links

• Thisisanfield.com player profile
• Official Liverpool profile
• Jermaine Pennant at Soccerbase
• LFChistory.net player profile
• ESPN Profile