Source: Daily_Mail
Harry Redknapp claims Portsmouth star Kanu is 49 but still 'King'
Harry Redknapp will look beyond his old club Portsmouth's starting line-up, maybe even past the bench, and see a dangerman to Tottenham's FA Cup dreams.[LNB]A man 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.[LNB]The name is Kanu and, for all the 6ft 5in Nigerian's foibles, Redknapp still describes him as 'King Kanu, a great signing ... what a player!'[LNB] He's not over the hill: Kanu hit Pompey's Cup winner in 2008[LNB]It's the dress rehearsal of the Cup semi-final at White Hart Lane, with Spurs still aiming for a precious Champions League place. [LNB]But Redknapp's tales of when he and the incredible Kanu were at Pompey had an audience transfixed and rolling with laughter on Friday.[LNB]'I took Kanu off the local park. He wasn't playing, just training on the park on his own - or so he said.[LNB]'He did not have a club four days before that season started and I didn't have a second forward. I was sitting there thinking where he had gone after being freed by West Brom. So I tracked him down, got him in and stuck him on the bench.[LNB]'He would ring me every Sunday night at 11pm so he knew I was in bed. 'Oh gaffer, it's Kanu here.[LNB]'Gaffer, I have the upset tummy, I cannot train tomorrow. I will not be in tomorrow, I do not feel well'.[LNB]'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![LNB]Fan of Kanu: Harry Redknapp[LNB]'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.[LNB]'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.[LNB]'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.[LNB]'Yet when I took him, people at the club who worked with me went, '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.'[LNB]** Brazil midfielder Sandro, 21, has completed his move from Internacional to Spurs for an undisclosed fee. He could arrive as late as mid-August if his club progress in the Copa Libertadores.[LNB] Peter Crouch insists Tottenham hold upper hand in Champions League chase Pompey offered £250,000 by Spartak to terminate Owusu-Abeyie's loanPORTSMOUTH FC
