Adios Jermaine Pennant!

With Jermaine Pennant’s move to Real Zaragoza, Spain’s gone and done it again: nicking another player from England.  Okay, fine, Pennant is not in the same league as Cristiano Ronaldo. (And until this coming season, Real Zaragoza were not in the same league as Real Madrid!) But give credit where credit’s due: young Jermaine could have continued the path he was traveling, which likely would have led him on a tour of the Premier League’s mid-table clubs.  Instead the lad’s boldly gone where few Englishmen have gone before: abroad.

Pennant will try to Just Do It in Spain

The 26-year-old becomes Zaragoza‘s first signing of the summer and joins for free on a three-year deal. It might just be the move that puts Pennant’s once-promising career back on track – since it’s been derailed by a domestic disturbance charge, drink-driving conviction and a short stint in prison.  But the move also signals something potentially larger for the game…

This summer, there’s been a lot of talk about the shift in power from England to Spain. In reality, it’s been a debate between England’s Big Four versus Spain’s Big Two. But Pennant’s defection suggests something deeper. It suggests that Real Zaragoza – a team just promoted to La Liga and more than likely to be relegated come May – is a more attractive destination than Bolton, Blackburn, Tottenham or any of the other teams that Pennant might have joined in England. Some will say that’s the real evidence of one league’s superiority over another: Not the quality of the Champions League competitors, who seem to exist almost independent of the rest of their leagues, but the quality of the teams who make up the middle of the pack and form the foundation of each league.

Or you could just chalk up the move to another misguided decision from a player who hasn’t really shown much intelligence or maturity over the years. Either way, citizens of Zaragoza: Lock up your wives, hide your children… the Premiership’s bad boy is coming to town!