Jamie Frank Redknapp (born 25 June 1973 in Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire) is a well-known former English footballer who was active from 1989 until 2005. He is now a football pundit with Sky Sports.

He played as a midfielder in a career that was blighted by a succession of injuries. He is the son of Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp and his mother is Sandra Harris. His cousin is Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard and his uncle is former West Ham coach Frank Lampard senior.

Club career

Summary

Redknapp started his career at Tottenham Hotspur as a youth player but turned down their offer of a contract to play for Bournemouth under his father, manager Harry Redknapp, before going on to play for Liverpool where Redknapp will be remembered for his best performances. After that Redknapp returned and played two and a half seasons for Tottenham Hotspur then finally joined Southampton, where he played under his father for a second time. Redknapp was also capped 17 times by England, scoring one goal.


Bournemouth

Redknapp started out on the road to professional football as a schoolboy at Tottenham Hotspur but began his professional career, at the age of 16, in 1989 at Bournemouth, then managed by his father, Harry. He made 13 appearances for the club before attracting the attention of Liverpool, who signed him on 15 January 1991. Kenny Dalglish had paid £350,000 for Redknapp, who was still only 17 at the time. He was one of the most expensively signed teenagers in English football around this time.


Liverpool

Redknapp was the last player to be signed by manager Kenny Dalglish before his surprising resignation on 22 February 1991 and later became the youngest Liverpool player to appear in European competition, at 18 years 120 days when making his Liverpool debut against Auxerre in the UEFA Cup on 23 October 1991.

Redknapp`s first goal for Liverpool came in his league debut on 7 December 1991 when he featured as a 63rd minute substitute for Jan Mølby in a 1–1 draw with Southampton at the Dell.

Following Dalglish`s departure, Redknapp was part of a transitional Liverpool team under Graeme Souness. He spent most of his first two-and-a-half years as a substitute or the reserves, missing the 1992 FA Cup Final triumph and only becoming a regular first-team player in the 1993–94 season, at the expense of Mark Walters. At this time, Redknapp had also become one of the mass-marketed poster boy icons of the newly developing FA Premier League where, alongside other photogenic young players like Manchester United players Ryan Giggs and Lee Sharpe, he was used ceaselessly in commercials, advertising spots and for the league`s promotional purposes in merchandising and sales.

On the pitch, Redknapp established himself as a key midfielder during the time Roy Evans managed at Anfield. He was one of a number of young players coming through the team, such as Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler, but was criticised together with them and others like Stan Collymore and Jason McAteer as "Spice Boys" - a derogatory term that implied that team were underachieving playboys epitomising the lad culture in the game. Redknapp, in particular, came to be the face of the team and was singled out because of his off-field lifestyle; often being described along with David James as a player more concerned with the catwalk and modelling shoots for fashion labels like Top Man and Armani than his football prowess.