Jermaine Pennant

Pacy midfielder with superb dribbling skills; Jermaine Pennant playing for Liverpool.

Jermaine Lloyd Pennant (born January 15, 1983 in Nottingham) is an English footballer who signed for Liverpool in July 2006. A pacy right-sided midfielder with fine dribbling skills, he has previously played for Notts County, Arsenal, Watford, Leeds United and Birmingham City.
Pennant is of half-Jamaican descent, but has opted to represent England internationally.
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 an opponent in a game against Poland 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, and Birmingham City, before signing permanently with them 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.
On 26 July 2006, it was confirmed that Liverpool had completed the signing of Pennant from Birmingham on a four year contract for a fee of £6.7 million, potentially rising to £8 million with add-ons. 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. Such an impressive start to his Liverpool career has seen him being compared to his boyhood heroes John Barnes and Robbie Fowler. Pennant now appears settled in the Liverpool First Team. On the 20th of January, 2007, he scored his first 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'. 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. 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.

Liverpool
15 January 1983
Source: Wikipedia