Jermaine Pennant is a professional football player who was born on January 15, 1983 in Nottingham, England. Even though he is of Jamaican descent, he chose to play for England at the international level and got an opportunity to represent its Under-21 team. Jermaine Pennant has had a total of 24 caps for the Under-21 team and is one of the five most capped English footballers at this level.
At the age of fifteen, Jermaine Pennant was signed by Arsenal from Notts County for £2 million, a record fee for a trainee then. On November 30, 1999, he made his debut for Arsenal in a game against Middlesbrough in the League Cup when he was sixteen years old, making him one of Arsenal’s youngest first-team players. In the next few seasons he continued to make league appearances for the club in several games and was part of the side that won the 2001 Football Association Challenge (FA) Youth Cup. Jermaine Pennant made his first appearance in the Premiership League as a substitute, in a game against West Ham United in the FA Premier League on August 24, 2002. On his full league debut, Jermaine Pennant scored a hat-trick in the game against Southampton in May 2003. In the following year, he was also part of the team that won the 2004 Charity Shield. During his stint at the club, Jermaine Pennant spent brief spells at Watford and Leeds United on loan.
During the 2004-05 season he played for Birmingham City Football Club, again as a loan player, and was signed by the club as a regular player on April 2005.
Later, on July 26, 2006, Jermaine Pennant signed a four-year contract with Liverpool for a fee of £6.7 million. Close on the heels of an impressive pre-season, he made his first appearance for the club in a game against Maccabi Haifa in a Champions' League 3rd round qualifying match at Anfield. For his superb performance in this game, Jermaine Pennant won the fans' Star Man award and was even compared to his childhood heroes John Barnes and Robbie Fowler for his impressive first season at the club. On January 20, 2007, he scored his first goal for Liverpool in their 2-0 home victory over Chelsea in the premiership.
Jermaine Pennant received appreciations from many quarters for his spectacular performance in the 2007 Champions League Final against AC Milan, where he won the Man of the Match award. He carried on his good form in the 2007-08 season, which helped his club reach the top of the league table. During this season he netted his second goal for the club in the game against Newcastle on March 8, 2008. In a match against Fulham, Jermaine Pennant added to his goal tally by scoring his third goal and helped his team to a victory on April 19, 2008.
