Jamie Redknapp memoir to Headline

Headline is publishing the first memoir by ex-Liverpool and England player Jamie Redknapp.

World rights in the book—described as both a "nostalgic" account of growing up in the Redknapp household and "love letter to football"—were acquired in a deal struck by consultant sports publisher Jonathan Taylor with Sara Drinkwater of M&C Saatchi Merlin.

The book is as yet untitled and co-written with Tom Fordyce, the BBC’s chief sports writer. Headline will publish in hardback and audiobook on 1st October.

Redknapp enjoyed a 17-year professional football career, playing most notably for Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, and winning 17 caps for England. He is now a football pundit with Sky Sports, a team captain on Sky One’s BAFTA award-winning show "A League of Their Own", and will be the host of Sky One’s new Friday night chat show, "Redknapp’s Weekend Warm Up". He is the son of Harry and Sandra Redknapp, and the cousin of Frank Lampard junior.

Taylor said: "Jamie’s book is a richly-evoked and nostalgic childhood memoir featuring a charismatic family steeped in The Beautiful Game. It deftly explores the father-son relationship between Harry and young Jamie with enormous warmth and charm. What emerges is a funny, deeply moving and beautifully personal account of growing up in the Redknapp household. Rather wonderfully, it also doubles up as an enchanting love letter to football."

Redknapp said: "This is a book I’ve been thinking about writing for a while, and now feels like absolutely the right time. I’m really excited at the prospect of bringing my childhood and fantastic family alive on the page, and I hope that many readers will relate to my lifelong obsession with football as well as the warmth and love of my upbringing."