Carl Jenkinson has completed his return to West Ham on a season-loan from Arsenal.
The England international right-back starred for the Hammers last season on loan, making 36 league appearances for the club.
Having tried and failed to sign the 23-year-old on a permanent deal, Jenko returns on another loan, which will hopefully be made permanent next summer.
Harlow-born Jenkinson started off in Charlton Athletic’s academy, and made his first appearance after getting loaned out to Conference South side Welling in 2010. Later that year, he was loaned off again to Conference side Eastborough, before getting recalled after a month due to an injury crisis at the Addicks.
After making only 8 appearances for Charlton, boyhood Gunner Jenkinson made the dream move to Arsenal in a deal worth £1million. Making his debut against Udinese in the Champions League, he impressed to keep his place in the league against Liverpool. He also played the next game against Man United, where he assisted Robin Van Persie and got sent off 3 minutes later in that famous 8-2 loss. The season after, in the absence of Bacary Sagna, he flourished in the right-back’s absence, earning praise from critics. These performances earned him a long term contract, due to end in 2017. His most recent game for Arsenal, against already relegated Norwich on the last day of the 2013-14 season, ended with his only professional club goal to date. Jenkinson is very popular among Arsenal players and fans due to his sheer love for the club and his heart-on-sleeve attitude.
In July 2014, it was announced that Jenkinson has signed on a 1 year loan deal at West Ham. He suffered an injury in pre-season against Schalke which ruled him out until mid-September. However, Jenkinson quickly became a fans favourite after starting every league game he was eligible for (he wasn’t allowed to play against his parent club) and putting in a top shift every game. This led for calls from the Hammers faithful to get Jenkinson permanently, however they could only get him on another loan.
Jenkinson is eligible to play for both England and Finland due to his mother being from the Scandinavian country. After playing for the England U-17 side, he got called up to the Finland U-18 and made an appearance for the Finland U-21 side. He was called up to the Finland national team, but turned it down as it would rule himself out of playing for England. He has played numerous times for the England U-21 side and was named in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the U-21 Euro Championships in which Jenkinson played every minute as England were eliminated in the group stages. He made his full England debut as a substitute in the 4-2 friendly loss v Sweden, his only cap to date. He has committed his future international career to the country of his birth.
As I’m sure you are all aware of Jenkinson’s playing style from last season, so what better way to end this article than 3 facts you probably did not know about Jenko:
1) He speaks fluent Swedish. His mother was raised in a Swedish speaking part of Finland.
2) His Dad Steve was a prominent 800m runner and was Seb Coe’s training partner
3) He opened a Twitter account in April 2015, but deleted it no longer than 2 weeks later because his mentions were being spammed with the word “banter”.
