Jamie Redknapp's wayward cross set up René Higuita's famous scorpion kick
On his England debut against Colombia at Wembley in September 1995, Jamie Redknapp mishit a cross that floated gently toward goal. The Colombian keeper René Higuita dived forward and cleared it with his heels over his head, the scorpion kick. Channel 4 later ranked it among the 100 greatest sporting moments.
Redknapp grew up in a football dynasty: his father is the manager Harry Redknapp, and Frank Lampard is his cousin. He trained as a schoolboy with Tottenham but turned professional at 16 with Bournemouth, then managed by his father. After 13 games there, Kenny Dalglish paid £350,000 to take him to Liverpool in January 1991, one of his last signings before resigning weeks later. At 18 years and 120 days he became Liverpool's youngest player in European competition.
A creative midfielder with a wide range of passing and a fierce free kick, he became a poster boy of the new Premier League. He was also lumped in with the so-called Spice Boys, a press label casting that talented mid-1990s Liverpool side as underachieving playboys. On the last day of the 1994–95 season he scored a late winner against league leaders Blackburn, a result that could have handed the title to hated rivals Manchester United; Anfield fell almost silent and he did not celebrate. He won the League Cup in 1995 and later captained the club.
Injuries haunted him. Knee surgery in the United States kept him out for long spells, and although teammates asked him to lift the 2001 FA Cup as captain, he had not played in the final. He moved to Tottenham on a free transfer in 2002 and finished at Southampton under his father, retiring at 31 in June 2005 on medical advice. His 17 England caps included only 39 minutes at a major tournament, as a substitute against Scotland at Euro 96.
Since retiring he has become a fixture of Sky Sports punditry, where he is almost as famous for overusing the word literally as for anything he did on the pitch.
Source: Jamie Redknapp
