Jermaine Anthony Jenas ( ; born 18 February 1983) is an English television presenter, football commentator and former professional footballer. He played as a central midfielder for English club sides Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, and Queens Park Rangers, scoring a career total of 39 goals from 341 league appearances. He also appeared 21 times for the senior England national football team, scoring one goal.
Jenas made his professional debut at age 17 for his boyhood club Nottingham Forest who were playing in the second tier, before moving to Premier League club Newcastle United for £5 million just over a year later, where he earned his first senior England cap in February 2003 aged 19 and was named PFA Young Player of the Year for the 2002–03 season. Hampered by several serious injuries, Jenas failed to reach the career heights expected of him, although he remained at the top level, moving to Tottenham in 2005 for £7 million, with whom he won the Football League Cup in the 2007–08 season. While with Tottenham, he travelled with England to the 2006 FIFA World Cup but was an unused substitute; he played his last England match in 2009.
The latter part of his playing career saw loan spells at Aston Villa in the Premier League in 2011 and Nottingham Forest in the second tier in 2012, before a permanent move to struggling Premier League club Queens Park Rangers in the January 2013 transfer window. Relegated with QPR in May, he played for much of the following season before injury finally forced his retirement. While still recuperating from his final injury, he moved into media work as a pundit, a role which he continued beyond retirement, including for the BBC on Match of the Day, as well as BT Sport. He also co-presented The One Show for the BBC from 2020 until his dismissal in 2024 for inappropriate behaviour.
Early life and education
Jenas was born in Nottingham to a white mother and British-Jamaican father. His father Dennis was born with the surname Genas but had it changed by deed poll as he wanted the initials "D. J.".
Dennis also played semi-professionally with Leicestershire non-league side Shepshed Charterhouse in the 1980s. He grew up on a council estate and was educated at the Catholic Becket School in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire. According to Jenas, there was "a lot of racism, not only thrown towards me, but also my mum, about my dad and about me, on the street".
In the 2001–02 season, Jenas became a regular and scored his first senior goal on 18 August in a 2–1 defeat at Barnsley. After four goals in 33 games across all competitions, Jenas was sold to Newcastle United for £5 million in February 2002.
Newcastle United
In 2002 Jenas joined Newcastle United from Nottingham Forest. Newcastle United, investing in youth, paid a transfer fee of
£5 million for Jenas and he became the second most expensive teenager in British football after Robbie Keane. His club transfer record for a teenager lasted for months when, in the following preseason, Newcastle United broke the club record, and the then British record for a teenager, in signing the 2002 Young European Footballer of the Year award winner and Portuguese international Hugo Viana for £8.5 million. After the 2001–2002 season Jenas first experienced international tournament football, when, being in the England squad, he was involved in the U21 European Championships and Newcastle United qualified for the 2002–03 Champions League. In his first full season with Newcastle he won the 2002–03 PFA Young Player of the Year award. In the 2002–03 season he managed to play 32 games in the Premier League and scored 6 goals. On 31 August 2005 at the age of 22, Newcastle United accepted an offer of £7 million for him from Tottenham Hotspur.
Tottenham Hotspur
thumb|Jenas and [[Younès Kaboul against Arsenal's Cesc Fàbregas in November 2010]]
Rumours of Jenas' unhappiness were confirmed early in the 2005–06 season by manager Graeme Souness, when he said that Jenas was not enjoying life at Newcastle, and the player reportedly compared life at the club to living "in a goldfish bowl". He was subsequently sold to Tottenham Hotspur on transfer deadline day – 31 August – for an initial fee of £7 million. Throughout the season, Jenas netted seven goals from midfield as Tottenham qualified for the UEFA Cup. He marked his return from a 13-match absence through injury by scoring the second goal in Tottenham's 3–1 FA Cup fourth round win over Southend United.
Jenas signed a new five-year deal with Tottenham on 29 August 2007, keeping him at the club until 2012.
Under Juande Ramos, Jenas' form improved greatly and he initially produced occasional impressive performances, partly due to the new regime but also from some personal words of encouragement from the Spaniard. Jenas played in the 1–1 draw and the 5–1 victory over rivals Arsenal in both legs of the semi-finals of the League Cup, scoring the opening goals in both matches. Jenas set up Jonathan Woodgate for the winning goal in the 2–1 League Cup final victory over Chelsea on 24 February 2008.
At the end of July 2008, Jenas added a one-year extension to his five-year contract, keeping him at Tottenham until 2013. A few days later, he was named as Spurs' new vice-captain following the departures of Robbie Keane and Paul Robinson. On 26 December against Fulham, Jenas made his 100th league appearance for Tottenham. He scored the only goal in a 1–0 win over West Bromwich Albion.
Aston Villa loan
On 31 August 2011, Jenas joined Aston Villa on a season-long loan deal from Tottenham. He wore the number 8 shirt at Villa, the same number he had while at Spurs. Jenas eventually made his debut for Villa on 5 November, after a series of niggling injuries, coming on as a second-half substitute against Norwich City. Jenas then came on for his second appearance for Villa on 27 November against Swansea City, as a 69th-minute substitute for striker Emile Heskey.
On 3 December, Jenas started his first game for Villa against Manchester United. While playing, he tripped over his own feet and suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon injury in a game that saw him, Shay Given and Javier Hernández all leave on stretchers. The injury kept him out for six months, effectively ending his spell at the club.
Return to Nottingham Forest
Jenas returned to Tottenham following his surgery, being given the number 21 for forthcoming 2012–13 season. On 28 September 2012, Jenas signed a month-long emergency loan deal with former club Nottingham Forest. He scored his first goal of his loan spell away at Barnsley in a 4–1 win. On 1 November, Forest announced that Jenas' loan had been extended until January 2013 although his final appearance was on 17 November in a home win against Sheffield Wednesday. In the six games he played on loan, Forest did not lose any (with a record of three wins and three draws).
Queens Park Rangers
On the final day of the January 2013 transfer window, Queens Park Rangers signed Jenas on an 18-month contract for an undisclosed fee from Tottenham, to be re-united with former manager Harry Redknapp. He scored his first goal for the club in a 3–1 home victory over Sunderland on 9 March. He scored again in the following game, on 16 March, a 3–2 defeat against Aston Villa. He made a total of 12 appearances for his new club, but was unable to prevent them being relegated with three games to go. After making 28 appearances for QPR in the Championship, Jenas suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during a training session in April 2014, which ruled him out for the rest of the season. Although his contract expired at the end of the 2013–14 season, he remained with QPR during his rehabilitation process.
International career
Jenas played for England from the under-15 level right up to the senior team, where he made his debut against Australia on 12 February 2003, under manager Sven-Göran Eriksson.
In total, Jenas earned 21 caps at senior level, scoring one goal. Looking back on his career in 2014, he cited his PFA award and his League Cup win as his career highlights in terms of personal and team achievements respectively, and detailed his biggest regret as never having been able to play for his boyhood club Nottingham Forest at the highest level. On the question of whether or not he had underachieved in his career given his talent at a young age, he answered "yes and no", arguing that he was happy with what he had done, but that he had been held back both by injuries and the shock of losing Bobby Robson as his manager at Newcastle, which "was bigger [to him] than people think it was". In November 2014, he joined BT Sport where he regularly featured in the studio alongside other pundits to provide analysis on the game.
On 1 April 2022, Jenas was the "Draw Conductor" for the 2022 FIFA World Cup draw.
In September 2023, Jenas wrote on Twitter that referee Robert Jones was a "complete shithouse" and said that all referees were ruining football. After being challenged by a refereeing charity due to his platform as a television pundit, he apologised.
Other broadcasting
In 2015, Jenas appeared as part of Channel 4's Time Crashers, a reality television programme in which celebrities were assigned the tasks of living in different historical eras.
Jenas presented a BBC Three documentary in April 2017 on knife-crime, focusing on his home town of Nottingham. During Teenage Knife Wars, he recalled an incident in his youth where he was the victim of a knife-point robbery.
In April 2023, Channel 4 commissioned The World's Most Expensive Trainers; an upcoming documentary that Jenas will present.
In December 2023, it was announced Jenas would serve as lead presenter for TNT Sports for the UK coverage of the FIA Formula E World Championship starting from the 2023–24 season. Jenas was not retained following his first season and was replaced as lead presenter by long-time pit reporter Nicki Shields.
In 2020, Jenas began co-presenting The One Show on BBC One with Alex Jones. In 2021 Jenas became one of its permanent hosts. In August 2024, Jenas was dismissed by the BBC with immediate effect for inappropriate behaviour, following complaints about messages sent to colleagues. He was also dropped by his talent agency, M&C Saatchi Merlin.
Jenas has endorsed the clothing retailer Jacamo, and the bookmaker William Hill.
Personal life
Jenas and his wife Ellie have two daughters together, while he also has a daughter from a previous relationship who lives in the United States with her mother. As of 2014, he lives in Hertfordshire.
Career statistics
Club
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
|+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
|-
!rowspan=2|Club
!rowspan=2|Season
!colspan=3|League
!colspan=2|FA Cup
!colspan=2|League Cup
!colspan=2|Europe
!colspan=2|Total
|-
!Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
|-
| rowspan="3"|Nottingham Forest
|2000–01
|First Division
|1||0||1||0||0||0||colspan=2|—||2||0
|-
|2001–02
|First Division
|28||4||1||0||2||0||colspan=2|—||31||4
|-
!colspan=2|Total
!29!!4!!2!!0!!2!!0!!colspan=2|—!!33!!4
|-
| rowspan="6"|Newcastle United
|2001–02
|Premier League
|32||6||1||1||0||0||8||0||41||7
|-
|2003–04
|Premier League
|31||2||2||0||1||0||12||1||46||3
|-
|2004–05
|Premier League
|31||1||4||0||2||1||11||0||48||2
|-
|2005–06
|Premier League
|4||0||colspan=2|—||colspan=2|—||1||0||5||0
|-
!colspan=2|Total
!110!!9!!7!!1!!3!!1!!32!!1!!152!!12
|-
| rowspan="9"|Tottenham Hotspur
|2005–06
|Premier League
|25||6||2||1||1||0||6||1||34||8
|-
|2007–08
|Premier League
|29||4||3||0||6||2||7||0||45||6
|-
|2008–09
|Premier League
|32||4||0||0||3||0||4||0||39||4
|-
|2009–10
|Premier League
|19||1||2||0||2||0||colspan=2|—||23||1
|-
|2010–11
|Premier League
|19||0||1||0||0||0||8||0||28||0
|-
|2011–12
|Premier League
|0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0
|-
|2012–13
|Premier League
|1||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||1||0
|-
!colspan=2|Total
!155!!21!!9!!2!!13!!2!!25!!1!!202!!26
|-
|Aston Villa (loan)
|2011–12
|Championship
|26||2||0||0||2||0||0||0||28||2
|-
!colspan=2|Total
!38!!4!!0!!0!!2!!0!!0!!0!!40!!4
|-
!colspan="3"|Career total
!341!!39!!18!!3!!20!!3!!57!!2!!436!!47
|}
International
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
!National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan=7|England
|2003||4||0
|-
|2004||5||0
|-
|2005||5||0
|-
|2006||1||0
|-
|2007||2||0
|-
|2008||3||1
|-
|2009||1||0
|-
!colspan=2|Total!!21!!1
|}
:England score listed first, score column indicates score after each Jenas goal.
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ International goals by date, venue, cap, opponent, score, result and competition
|-
!scope=col|No.
!scope=col data-sort-type=date|Date
!scope=col|Venue
!scope=col|Cap
!scope=col|Opponent
!scope=col|Score
!scope=col|Result
!scope=col|Competition
|-
!scope=row|1
|6 February 2008||Wembley Stadium, London, England||align=center|18||||align=center|1–0||align=center|2–1||Friendly
|}
Honours
Tottenham Hotspur
- Football League Cup: 2007–08; runner-up: 2008–09
Individual
- PFA Young Player of the Year: 2002–03
- Women's Football Ally of the Year at the Women's Football Awards: 2024
References
External links
- "Big Interview" from The Guardian