How Jermaine Jenas went from English footballer to BBC darling
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Jermaine Jenas has was fired from the BBC after reaching the top of primetime television following his career as a footballer in the Premier League.
The decision followed allegations related to digital communications, the BBC reported.
It is seen as a new low point in the career of a celebrity who had previously admitted that he had not achieved what he had set out to do football.
The 41-year-old was appointed as successor to Gary Lineker as host of Match of the day – has now been axed from that programme and from The One Show following an investigation into alleged complaints about his behaviour.
Jena’s At the age of 17, he made his professional debut for his boyhood club Nottingham Forest, where he made 29 appearances and secured a place in Forest’s first team as a central midfielder.
He was signed by Newcastle United in 2002 and won the Professional Footballers’ Association Young Player of the Year award in his first full season at the club.
In total, he played more than 340 league games for five football clubs and 21 games for England.
After being sold to Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £7 million in 2025, he helped the club win the League Cup in 2008 and stayed there until 2013.
He played on loan for Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest and finished his career at Queens Park Rangers before injuries forced him to retire in 2014.
He made his debut for the England national team in 2003 at the age of 19 and was not part of the squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He made a total of 21 appearances and scored one goal.
While recovering from a knee injury, he was released from the BBC As a presenter, he hosted a BBC Three documentary on knife crime in 2017, in which he recalled being the victim of a knife-point robbery.
In 2020, Jenas began as co-host The One Show on BBC One with Alex Jones and became one of the permanent presenters the following year.
He has worked on some of the biggest sporting events, including the 2024 European Championships in Germany this summer.
The father of four children did not introduce The One Show since July and took a two-week break because of the Olympic Games.
He presented Match of the day in January for the first time alone, after having Match of the day 2 Offshoot MOTDx.
When the news of his dismissal broke, Jenas was streaming live radio for Talksport Drive.
According to the corporation’s annual report, he received a salary of between £190,000 and £194,999 from the BBC in 2022/23.
In February, Jenas said The big problem: “None of us saw a future for me on TV. When I found out I would never play football again, it was really hard… So at first it was just about getting through the next day.
“And then I started dreaming about this second career. That’s how my younger self would look at me and be in awe that I made it Match of the day and interviewed Dolly Parton on The One Show.”