Jermaine Pennant

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Jermaine Pennant
Personal information
Full name Jermaine Lloyd Pennant
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Position(s) Winger
Team information
Current team
 Liverpool
Number 16
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17:12, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Jermaine Lloyd Pennant (born 15 January 1983 in Nottingham) is an English footballer who plays for Liverpool. A pacy right-sided midfielder with fine dribbling skills and a great cross, he signed in June 2006 having previously played for Notts County, Arsenal, Watford, Leeds United and Birmingham City.

He gained notoriety in 2005, when he had to play a match while on probation, wearing an electronic tag, following a drink-driving conviction.

Biography

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

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. These included being sent home by England Under-21 coach Howard Wilkinson for breaking a curfew before an important game against Turkey, and being sent off for punching Niko Kranjcar 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 five most-capped Englishmen at this level.

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 November 30 1999, at the time 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. He continued to make League Cup appearances over the next few season, but had to wait two and half years for his league debut, as a substitute against West Ham United on August 24 2002 in the FA Premier League

He scored a 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 the Arsenal side; Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger appeared to have eventually lost patience with Pennant, who had a history of turning up late to training. Pennant spent spells on loan to Watford, Leeds United.

Birmingham City

Pennant was loaned to Birmingham City for the 2004/5 season. In light of his drunk driving conviction, he signed for them permanently in April 2005. In the 2005-06 season, Birmingham City were relegated to the Championship (the second level of English football), and speculation grew that Pennant would leave the club.

Drunk-driving conviction

On 23 January 2005, Pennant was arrested and charged with drunk-driving after crashing his Mercedes into a lamp-post in Aylesbury, while serving a sixteen month driving ban and uninsured. Upon being arrested, Pennant initially gave his name as that of Arsenal teammate Ashley Cole. Pennant pleaded guilty to drunk-driving and driving whilst disqualified, and he was sentenced to ninety days in prison on 1 March.[1] 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.

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.[2] It is understood that Arsenal will receive around 25% of the fee.

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.[3] Such an impressive start to his Liverpool career has seen him being compared to his boyhood heroes John Barnes and Robbie Fowler.[4] Pennant now appears settled in the Liverpool First Team. On the 20th of January, 2007, he scored his first, and hitherto only, goal for Liverpool in their 2-0 home victory over Chelsea in the premiership. Pennant would later go on to produce an excellent performance against former club Arsenal F.C. playing a key part in three of the four goals the Reds produced as they cruised to a 4-1 victory. 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'.[5] Pennant was critically acclaimed for his performance against AC Milan on the 23rd May 2007. Arguably one of the best players on the Liverpool team that night, Pennant made dashing runs on the right flank, and supplied a number of good crosses in towards the strikers. This allowed him to receive the man of the match award for the Champions League Final. Following this performance, it was confirmed he will remain at Liverpool next season, along with few of his current team mates, as Rafael Benitez claims he will make major changes to the clubs squad.

Pennant started the 2007/08 season in the same fine form that he had finished the previous season with, putting in good performances on either flank as Liverpool surged to the top of the league table in the first month.[6] He was however, again ignored by McClaren for the English team in their European qualifying matches against Israel and Russia, despite the backing of Liverpool manager Benitez[7].

As Liverpool struggled to regain their good early season form following the international break, Pennant too could not maintain his excellent start to the season, culminating in a needless sending off - the first red card of his career - against FC Porto in Liverpool's opening Champions League match of the season. This was also Liverpool's first red card in 5 years, in the Champions League.

Off the pitch, teammate Alvaro ArbeloaAnd Peter Crouch recently revealed that Pennant was the joker of the club and often amused his teammates with his antics.[8]

Pennant opened his goal-scoring account with a stunning volley vs Chelsea, but hasn't scored another goal since.

Personal life

Following a 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.[9]

Off the pitch, he is good friends with Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole from their time together at Arsenal.

He is currently dating Hollyoaks actress Jennifer Metcalfe (Mercedes McQueen). He formerly dated topless model Amii Grove

Honours

Arsenal
Liverpool

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Jail for drink-driving footballer". BBC news. 01-03-2005. Retrieved 2006-08-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Pennant completes Liverpool move". BBC news. 26-07-2006. Retrieved 2006-08-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  3. ^ "Pennant voted fans Star Man v Maccabi". Retrieved 13 August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "Pennant interview with Liverpoolfc.tv". Liverpoolfc.tv. 26-07-2006. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N152998060726-1737.htm" ignored (help)
  5. ^ "Pennant: McClaren wrong to ignore me for England". ESPNsoccernet.com. Retrieved 2007-05-03. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  6. ^ "Pennant happy with start of season". LiverpoolFC.tv. 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2007-09-25. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  7. ^ "Rafa: Pennant's getting closer". LiverpoolFC.tv. 2007-09-03. Retrieved 2007-09-25. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  8. ^ "Arbeloa: Rafa will be proved right". LiverpoolFC.tv. 2007-09-25. Retrieved 2007-09-25. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  9. ^ Rossington, Ben (2007-07-17). "Pennant pays the penalty for home disturbance". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 2007-11-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links


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