un article de holt du mirror sur jamie redknapp,l'ancien capitaine des reds.
jamie redknapp n'a pas été épargné par les blessures alors qu'il etait vraiment doué et vraiment bon.
une personne élégante et un adpete du bon jeu fair play.
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REDKNAPP SIMPLY THE CLASSIEST PLAYER WE NEVER HAD
22 June 2005
JAMIE REDKNAPP wanted his wife, Louise, to be with him when he was told.
But they felt the journey to Colorado would be too arduous for their little boy, Charley, and they did not want to leave him with a babysitter.
So Jamie went with an old mate from Bournemouth. He didn't want to be there alone in case it was bad news.
The surgeon, Richard Steadman, performed an exploratory operation and then told Redknapp straight: his football career was over.
As Jamie came round, still woosy from the anaesthetic, still wrestling with the end of all he had ever known, he could make out the blur of Liverpool playing AC Milan in Istanbul on the television in his room.
His team enjoying one of their finest hours far, far away a few minutes after he had been told he would never play the game again. It stung.
Redknapp deserved that kind of night once in his career. But he never got it. The series of knee injuries that finally beat him last month saw to that.
He deserved more England caps than the 17 he won. But who else could come on against Scotland during Euro 96, change the game and then break his ankle.
Redknapp deserved better than that, too. He deserved to be remembered as one of the finest players of his generation. Not a hard luck story.
That's why I think it's worth marking the end of Redknapp's career. It's worth doing more than just letting it slip away unnoticed in the haze of mid-summer.
Because, in so many ways, Redknapp represented the best of English football. He was the most elegant of midfielders and the classiest of men.
He was such a beautiful passer of the ball that Glenn Hoddle recognised his talent and prepared to build an England team around him.
And he was a fine ambassador for the sport, always courteous and articulate, always happy to talk with supporters, the most popular guy in the dressing room wherever he went.
Most of all, he loved the game. He went through a lot of pain just to be able to play it. His life became a long ordeal of one operation after another. Just so he could play.
"It was getting to the stage last season," Redknapp said, "where I was thinking 'am I mad?' because I was putting myself through so much pain and so many injections.
"So I feared the worst when I went over to the States. I think I wanted to play on for another year because what happened at Southampton was so upsetting. I didn't want to finish like that. I didn't want to go out on that note. So what do I do now? Get on with the rest of my life, I suppose. It hasn't really sunk in fully. Most of my mates who are players are away on holiday so there's no-one ringing me up to chat about it.
"And it's not like I'm missing anything yet. It's the close season. No-one's thinking about football. It's when the lads start reporting back for pre-season training that it's going to be difficult.
"I'll miss the banter in the dressing room most of all. Going into training and having a cup of tea and a laugh with the lads, that's what is going to leave the biggest gap.
"And just going out and training and playing football. It has always been my life. My dad used to take me down to Bournemouth even when I was a little lad. It was my upbringing and my education as well as what I loved to do.
"I think that once you've survived the banter of the dressing room, you can hold a conversation with anybody anywhere. The high point was the 11 great years at Liverpool. I took a lot of pride in that. But there are regrets about that time as well because with the team we had there, with Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and Stan Collymore, we should have won things.
"I just always seemed to get injuries at bad times. I was in brilliant form going into Euro 96 and I knew I was going to play well when I got my chance against Scotland.
"I helped to turn that game around and then I broke my ankle. I broke it again playing for England against South Africa a year later.
"I got carried off three times for England with injuries which has got to be some sort of record."
He's probably right about that but it's not much consolation as he contemplates the beginning of the rest of his life.
A career in the media may beckon. He would be a valuable asset in the commentary box. But he will be missed on the pitch.
CAMPBELL WILL SHOW TIGER
TIGER WOODS spent part of the build-up to last week's US Open bemoaning the fact that there are no other black golfers on the PGA circuit.
It didn't occur to him that that might be partly because he has refused to speak out on any issue that might be considered even remotely political.
He had the chance to change his sport and he chose not to take it. That failing will count against him when history judges his claims to greatness. And in the circumstances, it seemed ironic that the affable New Zealander Michael Campbell, a Maori who also knows what it is like to be a victim of racial discrimination, should have held his nerve better than Woods on Sunday to record a memorable victory at Pinehurst.
His triumph was hailed in his homeland as the greatest sporting achievement by a New Zealander. I'm willing to wager he uses his platform better than the man he beat.
HENSON SNUB IS A RIDDLE
AFTER the way he led English rugby to the 2003 World Cup, I have always been reluctant to voice even the mildest criticism of Sir Clive Woodward.
But there have been several things about the build-up to the British Lions' first test against the All Blacks on Saturday that have struck the wrong note.
Most of all, the way Sir Clive has reverted to a reliance on the English old guard who helped him to that magnificent triumph in Sydney speaks of nodding to the past rather than embracing the future.
I'm a fan of Will Greenwood, too, but after the year he has had fighting injuries, quite how he merits a place in the squad ahead of Gavin Henson is beyond me.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope the Lions trounce the All Blacks in Christchurch.
Otherwise, for the first time since the World Cup, serious questions will be asked of Sir Clive's judgement.
GLENN'S JUST AN OLD JOKE
HOW amusing to see Aussie Glenn McGrath sledging Marcus Trescothick after he dismissed him in the tourists' defeat to England at Bristol on Sunday. Hasn't anybody told the old codger that pouring scorn on your opponents doesn't have quite the same impact when you've just been battered by Bangladesh.
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