Жермейн Йенас: Футболшыдан тележүргізушіге дейін өмір жолы

Former English footballer and pundit

Jermaine Anthony Jenas ('/dʒ//iː//n//ə//s/ JEEnəs; born 18 February 1983) is an English television presenter, football pundit 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. A promising talent, 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 tail end 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 has continued beyond retirement, most recently for the BBC on Match of the Day, as well as BT Sport. He also began co presenting The One Show for the BBC in 2020.

Jenas was born in Nottingham and is of mixed Afro Caribbean and English descent. 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 local 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.

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.

Rumours of Jenas' unhappiness were confirmed early in the 2005–06 season by manager Graeme Souness, when he revealed 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.

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.

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 6 games he played on loan, Forest did not lose any (with a record of three wins and three draws).

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.

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 features 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.

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 2020, Jenas began co presenting The One Show on BBC One with Alex Jones. In 2021 Jenas became one of its permanent hosts. 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 and his wife Ellie have two daughters together, while he has an older daughter from a previous relationship who lives in the United States with her mother. and the bookmaker William Hill. In October 2022, Jenas was fined £2,070 and banned from driving for six months for speeding and using his mobile phone in two hands while driving on the M25 motorway in Hertfordshire.