Jermaine Jenas Interview

1 December 2015

Tell us about being a young lad growing up in Clifton...

Growing up in Clifton wasn’t exactly easy, but one thing we did have was a nice big patch of grass to play football on. I think over the years we’ve had some good players come through, particularly from Clifton All Whites, like Viv Anderson and Michael Johnson. So a lot of good players have come through the system in Clifton. A lot of that was down to the reinvestment of the local people, keeping them interested in children’s football. It’s a huge interest in Clifton and luckily enough we had pitches to go and play on.

How do you feel that your hometown is now the ‘City of Football’?

I’ve always classed Nottingham as the City of Football anyway. We might have the official title now, but growing up when I was playing for Nottingham Forest, whatever clubs you went to there was always respect between you. This is especially true when you come from a club like Forest, a club where they taught you to play football. The ball was always played on the ground and there was no rushed element to training young players, so I felt honoured to be a part of that. The title is great, but for me, my hometown has and will always be the City of Football.

How do you think we can get more kids to play football?

I think it’s more about what we can do for the kids to get them to play football. I think we’ve neglected them over the years. I was lucky to have a patch of grass to go and put down two jackets and play football. Kids today in some areas haven’t even got that. Big fields are getting taken over for housing, which there’s a need for, but there’s also a need for a space for kids to play on. Whether it’s football or any other sport, facilities like this new one at the Forest Rec are how you find that next star. The responsibility is on us as adults to make sure that there’s somewhere for them to go and practice the sport they love.

So you mentioned these new facilities earlier. What do you think to them?

The facilities are great. 3G pitches were unheard of when I was a kid - we used to play on concrete. But, like I said, these are the facilities that you need to inspire the kids. You want them to be nagging their parents, saying “I wanna go down and play football.” They’ll be able to train day in day out if there’s enough grass for them to do it here. It doesn’t matter now if there’s wind, snow or rain; you can always come down and have a kick about and that’s how you get better at the game.

The Nottingham Forest In The Community Sports Zone is located on the Forest Recreation Ground

Nottingham Forest In The Community