Harry Redknapp was born in London on March 2, 1947. This is a famous English football player and coach. He is the father of the former captain of the “Liverpool” named Jamie Redknapp. And besides, this person is an uncle of the real legend of FC Chelsea - Frank Lampard. But this is not his main achievements, although the facts are very remarkable.
Start of activity
Harry Redknapp was born into a simple family. His father worked at a shipyard. Mom was a worker in a confectionery factory and cleaned the premises in the morning. Little Harry loved to play cards and football since childhood. By the way, Arsenal was his favorite club - he often went to matches of this team.
And at 11, Redknapp began playing for the East London school team. After some time, he was noticed by the scout of FC Tottenham Hotspur. So Harry soon became one of the players in this club. And after he was 15 years old, representatives of Chelsea and even Arsenal became interested in him. But Harry Redknapp obeyed his mother’s advice and moved on to West Ham Academy. Together with this team in 1963 he reached the finals of the prestigious tournament - the Youth Cup of the country. And “West Ham” won - with difficulty, but still he won the victory. And two days later, the club took another trophy. It was a victory at the London Youth Cup.
By the way, in those same years, Harry Redknapp also played for the youth national team. In 1964, he and the team reached the finals of the European Championship. And there England defeated Spain with a score of 4: 0. A year later, Harry received the status of the best player in the international youth championship (the tournament was held in Augsburg).
Further career
Harry Redknapp spent most of his career in West Ham. In the first match for the main team, he, having replaced, scored a goal, and it was thanks to this that he managed to equalize the score to 1: 1 (it was a game against Sunderland). Since until 1975 the team could not rise above the eighth line of ratings, then Harry did not play in European competitions.
In 1972, he moved to Bournemouth. This team played in the third division. And Harry bought back for 31,000 sterling. The coach believed that the team needed a football player who knows how to give the pass, playing on the right flank. Harry Redknapp helped the team rise to 7th place in the championship ranking in 1972/73. But despite the fact that in the following seasons the player scored more, the club was eliminated in the 4th division. And in 1976, Redknapp Harry left the team, having failed to help her get out again in a more prestigious league.
Redknapp as a coach: start
In 1982, Harry ended his career as a field player and decided to become a coach. At first he was an assistant at Bournemouth. He became the head coach only in 1983. And it was thanks to his efforts that the team did not leave the third division. Moreover, in the next season Harry Redknapp led the club to victory in the championship! And the “Bournemouth” went to the second division. The team played there for two years. Then again “left” in the third division.
In 1990, in June, Harry was in Italy at the World Cup. But, passing through Latina, he, along with other significant personalities of football, got into an accident. Five died. Harry suffered a fracture of the skull, nose, several cracked ribs and a wounded leg. The doctors who arrived at the scene of the accident felt that he was dead and even covered him with a blanket. Harry was unconscious for two days. But then he recovered. Not without consequences, of course: he lost his sense of smell and acquired a nervous facial tic. However, a year later he returned to coaching at Bournemouth. This was proved by the fact that Redknapp Harry is a football coach with great willpower.
Achievements
In 1994, Harry coached West Ham, and he managed to make the team play stable and confident. Together with him, the club achieved its best result in the 1998/99 season, ranking fifth in the Premier League. And a year later, West Ham won the Intertoto Cup. But in 2001, Harry left the team and left Portsmouth. There he was a sports director. But since their coach did not give visible results, a year later Harry took his place. And thanks to him, “Portsmouth” won the first division, thus withdrawing him to the Premier League.
Redknapp also coached Southampton. But with him, Harry had no success, on the contrary, the team left the top division. Because in 2005, he returned to Portsmouth. And there successes were obvious. A year after his return, Harry led the team to 9th place in the championship. And it was the best result since 1950!
But in 2008, he went to Tottenham Hotspur. Club management paid 5 million pounds to “Portsmouth” in compensation. And in the first two weeks, Harry paid off - he led the team out of the relegation zone. Subsequently, he expanded the composition with promising young players and returned Jermain Defoe. As a result, “Tottenham Hotspur” reached the finals of the League Cup. True, there he lost to Manchester United.
Last years
In 2012, Redknapp coached the Queens Park Rangers. Thanks to him, the team returned to the Premier League. However, in 2015, Harry decided to resign. First, he coached the Jordan team for a while. But for the past month (since April 29, 2016), Harry Redknapp, whose biography is very eventful, has been a football consultant for FC Central Coast Mariners. Rumor has it that soon he will become an adviser to the head coach of the national team of Uzbekistan.