Jamie Redknapp

By Craig · Published 9 November 2026

Jamie Redknapp was playing for Liverpool at 18, for England at 22 and captaining Liverpool at 26. He could pass, he could shoot from distance, and for long spells he couldn't stay fit. He was also one of the most famous faces of the 1990s game, first in a cream suit at Wembley and later in a Sky Sports studio.

Clubs

AFC Bournemouth, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton

Premier League

295 appearances, 33 goals

Honours

League Cup 1994/95

International

17 England caps, 1 goal

Fantasy price

£6.0m in 1995/96

How he arrived

Redknapp grew up on the south coast while his father Harry was coaching at Bournemouth. He was a schoolboy at Tottenham but turned down a professional contract there, and started his career at Bournemouth instead, playing under his dad at 16. He made 13 league appearances.

Liverpool signed him in January 1991 for £350,000. He was 17, and he was one of the last players Kenny Dalglish brought in: Dalglish resigned on 22 February, about five weeks later.

Graeme Souness gave him his debut in the UEFA Cup against Auxerre in October 1991. He was 18 years and 120 days old, Liverpool's youngest player in European competition at the time. His league debut came that December at The Dell, as a substitute against Southampton, and he scored in a 1-1 draw. By 1993/94 he was a regular. He won the League Cup in 1995, and that September he made his England debut against Colombia at Wembley. It was his mishit cross that René Higuita cleared with his famous scorpion kick.

The moment: Newcastle, 25 March 2000

Gérard Houllier made Redknapp captain in the summer of 1999, after John Barnes, Steve McManaman and Paul Ince had all left. Then the injuries piled up. He had knee surgery in November 1999, and by the time Newcastle came to Anfield in late March he was on the bench, with Sami Hyypiä wearing the armband.

Liverpool were third. Titi Camara put them ahead early in the second half and Alan Shearer equalised. Redknapp came on for Steven Gerrard with 12 minutes left. Two minutes from time, fellow substitute Danny Murphy put the ball into the box and Redknapp got above Duncan Ferguson to head the winner. Liverpool won 2-1.

It was his first league goal since November, and the club captain had scored it after starting on the bench. "It was an explosion of emotion," he said later.

The cream suits

Four years earlier Redknapp had been part of a very different Liverpool story. On 11 May 1996 the team walked out at Wembley for the FA Cup final against Manchester United in matching cream Armani suits. David James was modelling for Armani at the time. Phil Babb later said the squad had been fitted for navy suits and assumed that's what they would wear.

United won 1-0 with a late Eric Cantona goal, and the suits came to stand for a whole team. The press called them the Spice Boys, a name that played on the Spice Girls and on pop-star looks, haircuts and endorsement deals. Redknapp, who married the singer Louise Nurding in 1998, was always going to be on that list, alongsideRobbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Jason McAteer and James.

It was a harsh label for a side that finished third that season. Redknapp started the final and played until the 86th minute. Nobody remembers that bit. Everybody remembers the suits.

Why the streets won't forget

Mostly because of what might have been. Redknapp was a proper footballer: a midfielder who could pass long or short and strike a ball from distance. In 1998/99, his best season, he scored eight league goals from midfield in 34 games.

Then the injuries took over. He missed the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. His only minutes at a major tournament were 39 against Scotland at Euro 96, as a substitute, before he was injured. He didn't play a single game in2000/01, the season Liverpool won the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup, but as club captain he still went up with his team-mates to lift the FA Cup in Cardiff. His last goal for Liverpool came in a 2-0 win at Charlton in October 2001. Three days later he played his last game for the club.

He joined Tottenham on a free transfer in April 2002 and scored the only goal against Aston Villa in his first month. A knee injury in 2003 cost him another six months. Spurs released him in January 2005. His father, by then Southampton manager, made him his first signing. Southampton went down on the final day of2004/05, ending 27 years in the top flight. In June 2005, aged 31, he retired. Harry said that "following medical advice he has had to put his long-term health first".

For a retro squad, that 1998/99 Liverpool version is the one that shows how good he was when fit.

Where is he now

Redknapp was a BBC pundit at the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004 while still playing, and joined Sky Sports full-time after he retired. More than 20 years later he's still there. Sky bills him as a football expert and columnist. In June 2026 he called Arne Slot's sacking by Liverpool disappointing, a year after Slot had won them the title. In the first week of November 2026 he was on Sky calling VAR "rubbish" after Coventry had two penalty appeals turned down, and tipping Arsenal for the title.

Away from football coverage he was a team captain on Sky's A League of Their Own from 2010, and in 2021 he fronted Redknapp's Big Night Out with Harry and the comedian Tom Davis. In 2010 the Plain English Campaign gave him its Foot in Mouth award for his fondness for the word "literally".

Which seasons can you draft him in?

There's no 2000/01 because injury kept him out of every league game that season, and he isn't in the game's 2001/02 squads either. Want him in your midfield? Draft a squad from 1995/96.