I’m a former Premier League star now presenting completely different sport, I hadn’t seen it before I was offered job
JERMAINE JENAS revealed he accepted his latest presenting job in a new sport without ever watching it.
The former Premier League midfielder, 41, retired in 2014 after a spate of injuries aged just 31.
He has since embarked on a wide-ranging career in the media, initially as a pundit before developing into a presenter.
And Jenas is now fronting the coverage of the Formula E World Championship.
However, he admitted on That Peter Crouch Podcast he was doing the new gig despite being completely new to Formula E.
Jenas said: “I always loved Formula One and this particular job came about because FE is a brand-new sport, it’s only nine or ten years old.
“It’s a sport that revolves around sustainability and the excitement as well.
“When they asked me to do it, I was like, ‘Look I’ve never seen this racing before. As much as I love F1, I’m going to have to do a lot of research and work into FE.’
“They were like, ‘That’s what we want. It’s a brand-new sport, no one knows enough about it to enjoy it so you can take them on that journey.’
“Once that pressure was off and they were telling me some of the venues I would be going to… Mexico, Sao Paulo, Monaco, Tokyo, these sounded like decent places to go.”
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Jenas, who burst through at Nottingham Forest and was made captain at 17, joined Newcastle under Sir Bobby Robson where he was crowned PFA Young Player of the Year before eight seasons with Tottenham.
The 21-cap England star finished his career with loans at Aston Villa and Forest then one final season at QPR.
He is still a football pundit for TNT and Match of the Day – with many tipping him to eventually replace Gary Lineker as the main presenter.
That is especially because the former midfielder is now a permanent co-host of The One Show alongside Alex Jones.
But he is still getting to grips with the unusual format of the Formula E presenting.
Jenas added: “I love my football and it will always be my bread and butter but because I have started to drift into more of the presenting world as well, I’m testing myself.
“The first one in Mexico, if you have ever seen a child thrown in at the deep end just trying to get to the other side, that’s what the whole hour felt like. It was so hard.
“We’re doing it for three different channels – TNT, CBS and Roku – and TNT might go to an advert but Roku aren’t so they call it a soft break.
“There’s none of that saying goodbye and welcome back to the show, it’s all really awkward joining it together.
“It’s been a good start, I’ve done Mexico, done a doubleheader in Saudi then I go to Sao Paulo and Tokyo in March.”
