Jermaine Jenas

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. Despite struggling with injury towards the end of the 2005–06 season, he recovered sufficiently to be named in the 2006 FIFA World Cup squad, but did not play at the tournament. In the first game, he had got as far as getting changed to be brought on as a last-minute substitute, before being thwarted by the final whistle. His improvement at Spurs earned him a call-up to the England squad for Fabio Capello's first game in charge, a friendly against Switzerland at Wembley Stadium on 6 February 2008; Jenas scored the opening goal in the 40th minute as England won 2–1. In total, Jenas earned 21 caps at senior level, scoring one goal.

Nottingham Forest

Jenas began his career at Nottingham Forest, then in the First Division. He made his debut aged 17 on 7 January 2001, starting in a 1–0 home defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup. One week later, again as a starter, he played his first league game, and was replaced by David Freeman in the 68th minute of a 3–0 home defeat to Crystal Palace, his only other game of the season. 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 held in Switzerland. In the 2001–2002 football season, Jenas played 12 games for Newcastle United and…

Football television coverage

After Jenas was released by QPR, he moved into television as a freelance pundit, firstly as an analyst for ITV Sport's coverage of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League. 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…

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".