A Family Obsession: What We Talk About When We Talk About Football (Hardback) - Harry Redknapp

Harry and Jamie Redknapp's affectionate homage to football's most influential and intriguing characters.

One of the most loved - and loving - father-and-son duos in the land, Harry and Jamie Redknapp are football royalty. Football runs through their veins. Both have enjoyed stellar careers on the pitch, in managerial dug-outs and in our television studios. But how did it all start, and what drove them on to be the football fanatics that they so passionately are today?

A Family Obsession is the fascinating result of Harry and Jamie sitting round the kitchen table, where they discuss, debate, select and celebrate all aspects of the game that have inspired them. Who are the men who impacted their careers and fired that all-consuming passion for football? This is a deep dive into the matches, the players, the managers and the changes that have spanned their two generations. With amusing anecdotes, Harry and Jamie reveal the individuals who have set their pulses racing, opened their minds, enriched their football lives and stimulated their respective love affairs with the sport.

From childhood idols to role models in young adulthood, from beloved team-mates to bitter rivals, from genius managers to the game's great mavericks - from Pele and Maradona to Bobby Moore and Lionel Messi via Steven Gerrard and Pep Guardiola - all are brought to life by two of the country's most knowledgeable, animated and beloved football obsessives.

About the Author

Harry Redknapp was born in 1947 in Poplar, East London. After starting out as a trainee at Tottenham, he signed for West Ham and played for them between 1965 and 1972. He also played for Bournemouth and the Seattle Sounders before injury took him into management and coaching. He has managed at Bournemouth, West Ham, Portsmouth (twice), Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and currently QPR. He won the FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008 and took Spurs into the Champions League in 2010. He is married to Sandra and has two sons, Mark and Jamie (who played for Liverpool, Tottenham and England). He is also uncle to Frank Lampard. He has two bulldogs called Rosie and Buster.

Born in Hampshire in 1973, Jamie Redknapp made his debut for Bournemouth at the age of 16. He signed for Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool in 1991 and stayed at Anfield until 2002, in the process making more than 300 appearances, scoring in excess of 40 goals, and winning the League Cup in 1995 and both the Charity Shield and UEFA Super Cup in 2001. Redknapp subsequently played for Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton, and won 17 caps for England. He retired in 2005 on medical advice. Jamie is a principal pundit on Sky Sports' football coverage, writes weeekly columns for the Daily Mail, and is a team captain on Sky's two-time BAFTA-winning sports panel show A League of Their Own. He has three children and lives in Surrey.