That’ll be a tricky pub quiz question in a few years – Who is the only footballer to appear in a Champions League final and on The Jeremy Kyle Show?
The answer is Jermaine Pennant.
Pennant played the full 90 minutes for Liverpool in their defeat to AC Milan in the 2007 Champions League final but his career soon went downhill.
After parting ways with the Reds in 2009, the winger has since had spells at Pune City, Tampines Rovers and Billericay Town.
Pennant’s first experience of reality television came when he entered the Celebrity Big Brother house earlier this year. Pennant was the fourth contestant evicted and was heavily criticised for apparently flirting with fellow housemate Chloe Ayling despite being married.
Pennant’s next appearance on national television came on Friday morning, when the 35-year-old appeared on an episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show alongside his wife, Alice Goodwin.
The couple discussed Goodwin’s past as a webcam girl and Pennant’s behaviour on Celebrity Big Brother and when asked by the show’s host to take a lie detector test, Pennant jokingly attempted to walk off the set before reassuring his wife.
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“I’m alright. I’m good,” Pennant said as he returned to his chair. “But I’m not coming on the show to do one. Behind closed doors.”
Quotes from Pennant’s autobiography Mental: Bad Behaviour and the Beautiful Game were brought up as he the former England U21 international was quizzed on the game he would play with his friends regarding sexual experiences with the same girls.
“It worked like this. If I slept with any girl and then any of the other lads slept with her afterwards, they would have to pay me ‘rent’: if she was Mayfair, they would have to pay me £100; for Old Kent Road it would be £14.”
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Goodwin was also given the chance to explain her side of the argument but vowed to stand by Pennant.
“I was a bit upset. I was sat at home waiting for him to explain himself,” Goodwin said. “I was a bit pissed off because he acted immature in there, there’s no doubt about that.
“He acted a bit childish for sure. But like I say nothing physical went on, it got blown out of proportion. I was never going to leave him. He’s never cheated on me.”
