Jamie Redknapp

Summary

Redknapp was born in Barton on Sea, Hampshire and started his career by joining Tottenham Hotspur as a youth player but turned down their offer of a professional contract, deciding to play for AFC Bournemouth under his father, manager Harry Redknapp. He went on to play for Liverpool where Redknapp would be remembered for his best performances. After that Redknapp returned and played 2+1⁄2 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.

AFC 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 one of the last players 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, by which time Liverpool were being managed by Graeme…

England manager Terry Venables gave Redknapp his international debut on 6 September 1995 in the 0–0 international friendly with Colombia at Wembley. The game is best remembered for his mishit cross that produced René Higuita's famous 'scorpion kick'. It ranked 94th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in 2002. Redknapp was capped 17 times for England but played just 39 minutes at a major tournament, which was during the Euro 96 campaign when he appeared as a substitute against Scotland in the group stage. Rob Smyth later wrote in The Guardian that Redknapp's "slick passing greased some slow-moving wheels". Injury ruled him out of contention for both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000. His only international goal came on 10 October 1999 in the 2–1 friendly victory against Belgium at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland.

Redknapp began his career in 2002 as a studio-based pundit on BBC during the World Cup in 2002. He also was a BBC pundit during the 2004 European Championships. Since retiring he had gone into punditry full-time and is a regular studio pundit on Sky Sports alongside former England teammate Gary Neville. He is also a regular columnist on the Sky Sports website. In 2005, Redknapp launched a bi-monthly magazine with his wife Louise and former teammate Tim Sherwood named Icon Magazine, aimed at professional footballers and their families. In 2010, he was made host and mentor on the Sky1 show Football's Next Star, and a team captain in the Sky1 sports game show A League of Their Own. Redknapp has received significant attention for his repeated overuse and misuse of the word "literally", in quotes such as "he literally chopped him in half in that challenge", "Alonso and Sissoko have been picked to literally sit in front of the back four", "Drogba literally destroyed Senderos today", "in his youth, Michael Owen was literally a greyhound", "he had to cut back inside onto his left, because he literally hasn't got a right foot", "Martin Jol's head is literally on the chopping block" and "these balls now – they literally explode off your feet". In 2010, he was presented with the Foot in Mouth Award from the Plain English Campaign for his poor use of English. On 22 April 2021, chat show Redknapp's Big Night Out premiered on Sky One, presented by Jamie and Harry Redknapp with comedian…

Redknapp's father is football manager Harry Redknapp, and his mother is Sandra Harris. He has one older brother, who is a model. Redknapp is the maternal cousin of Frank Lampard, whose father is former West Ham United player and Harry's former managerial assistant Frank Lampard Sr. Redknapp grew up on the south coast as his father was coaching Bournemouth at that time. He attended Twynham School in Christchurch and started playing in the Sunday league youth teams with his brother. On 29 June 1998, Redknapp married pop singer Louise Nurding. They have two sons. After 19 years of marriage, Jamie and Louise Redknapp were granted a divorce on 29 December 2017. On 18 October 2021, Redknapp married model Frida Andersson, at Chelsea Register Office in London. The couple have one son.