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Papa Bouba Diop: 'I was lucky to manage him' says Harry Redknapp
Nov 30, 2020
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.
Papa Bouba Diop: Former Senegal, Fulham & Portsmouth midfielder dies aged 42
"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'.
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