He is Nigerian international, Nwankwo Kanu, the Portsmouth forward he cheerfully labels as a '49-year-old', serial puller of sickies and who once was both so rigidly legless and armless that he had to be prised out of an airport seat.
advertisement
For all the 6ft 5in Nigerian's foibles, Redknapp still describes him as 'King Kanu, a great signing ... what a player!'
Redknapp's tales of when he and the incredible Kanu were at Pompey had an audience transfixed and rolling with laughter last Friday.
"I took Kanu off the local park. He wasn't playing, just training on the park on his own - or so he said.
"He would ring me every Sunday night at 11pm so he knew I was in bed. "Oh gaffer, it's Kanu here.'Gaffer, I have the upset tummy, I cannot train tomorrow. I will not be in tomorrow, I do not feel well".
'Every Sunday. But on the pitch ... first game, I stuck him on for the second half against Blackburn, he got two great goals and missed a penalty for the hat-trick. Monday we went to Middlesbrough, won 4-0 and Kanu got two more goals. He ran from the halfway line for the second. What a goal!
"We got back home to the airport and we were sitting while waiting for the baggage to come. Suddenly he could not get up. His body had given up. We had to lift him into one of those wheelchairs.
"No matter how the physios tried, his body would not straighten up. They lifted him up into the chair and wheeled him out the airport! He had to leave his car there and he could not drive. The physio had to drive him back. His body had gone.
"How old is he? 49? I don't know (officially, he's 33). But when you think he played at Inter Milan, won the Champions League with Ajax and he'd had a heart problem. In training you'd pay to watch him some days. He could do things you'd never seen. What a lovely guy as well.
"Yet when I took him, people at the club who worked with me said, 'He's finished, Harry'.
"I said, "No". I took him and he did fantastic for me and he's still there now. King Kanu. He's an amazing talent. Still."
Comments