Former Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp has said he was ‘lucky to have managed’ Papa Bouba Diop.
The 42-year-old Senegal midfielder passed away on Sunday after a battle with Motor-Neurone disease
Bouba Diop spent three season’s at Portsmouth and was part of Redknapp’s team when they won the 2008 FA Cup.
“I was very lucky to have managed such a fantastic boy and spent some time with him he was special,” Redknapp told BBC Sport.
“He was an amazing player he did a great job for me at Portsmouth and I think the Portsmouth fans loved him. He was a character they called him the Wardrobe, he was so big you couldn’t move him.”
“Well he was a big colossus – you wouldn’t want to play against him. I was talking to my son Jamie (the former Liverpool and England midfielder) and he said ‘What a nightmare he was to play against.’
“He was so powerful and a giant of a man and he would run all over you and great in the air and he could pass and he just a special talent.
“I was distraught when I heard the big man had passed away and I just couldn’t believe it he had been such a healthy fit strong guy, what an athlete – a giant of a man to lose him at such an early age it is so sad.”
Despite his size Redknapp said that Bouba Diop was a ‘gentle giant’.
“He was always happy never a bad word and he would always laugh at the corniest of jokes – always up for a laugh no real aggression in him.
“He looked aggressive on the pitch because he was so big but he always had a smile on his face I never saw him have a cross word or be miserable – he was always upbeat.”
