An ex-Premier League footballer wore the ankle tag after being released from prison (Image: Getty)
He played under at and ended up on the losing side of a final with . But Jermaine Pennant’s troubles away from the pitch ensured his bad boy reputation overshadowed his achievements.
In 2005, Pennant became the first footballer to play in the Premiership (now Premier League) while wearing an electronic tag at the age of 22. The then- winger, on loan at Birmingham City at the time, was forced to comply following his release from prison, having served 30 days of a three-month sentence for drink driving.
He was arrested after he was spotted in a car park in Aylesbury driving a with a lamp post dragging beneath it. Pennant pleaded guilty to drink driving, driving while disqualified and using a vehicle without insurance and was jailed at Aylesbury Magistrates’ Court.
Pennant previously revealed how he struggled during his month in prison without the daily routine of playing football: “I was… I wouldn’t say depressed, but I was sad in myself with the way things were going,” he said in 2018. “Not playing was adding to the damage. I was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.
“I didn’t have a clue, I was in shock, it didn’t sink in until about after a week when I was inside that [I thought] ‘oh my god, I’m in prison – what have I done with my life? What have I done with my career?'”
He might have been out of prison, but his freedom came with an asterisk. As well as being tagged on his left ankle as part of his parole conditions, Pennant was subjected to a strict curfew which banned him from leaving his home between 7pm and 7am.
Jermaine Pennant served 30 days of a three-month sentence for drink driving (Image: Getty)
Adhering to that would’ve denied him the chance to feature in some Premier League matches. However, he was granted special dispensation by referee Howard Webb to play in a game against with the device strapped to his ankle.
Pennant had been on loan with Birmingham City at the time of his arrest. When he got out of prison, Blues boss Steve Bruce signed him on a permanent £3million deal – something that was graciously received by the troubled winger: “They gave me the opportunity when I came out to then kick-start my career,” he said. “I owe a lot to them.”
Pennant became something of a nomad, leaving the Midlands outfit to join and even played in the 2006-07 Champions League final against AC Milan. But they lost 1-0, and Pennant’s career took a sharp turn for the worse when he left Anfield.
Jermaine Pennant was given a lifeline at Birmingham City by Steve Bruce (Image: Getty)
He ended up featuring for 15 different clubs before retiring in 2017. During a spell playing for Real Zaragoza in Spain, he left his Porsche car near a railway station in the city and amassed five months’ worth of parking tickets.
He has spoken openly about his struggles with mental health and the ‘bad boy’ tag that stuck to him during his football career.
“I came from a very poor background and upbringing, a difficult one, and then to be thrown in the limelight – every move you make, whether it’s good or bad, gets thrown in the spotlight,” he said in 2023. “I didn’t know how to deal with that and a lot of my mistakes were publicised, which then gave me a tag – a bad boy image, which was far from.
Jermaine Pennant played in the Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan (Image: Getty)
“I was just a young kid, not having no support, making stupid mistakes with no advice and no guidance. Then you kind of live up to them. You kind of think, ‘Well, that’s just the way I am. They made me this way’, and you kind of just live that kind of life. You find yourself in a dark place and a spiral.”
Pennant, now 42, has worked hard to rehabilitate his image, appearing on TV show ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ and featuring on talkSPORT and Sky Sports as a football pundit.