Club Career
Born in Adrogué, Buenos Aires, Redondo made his debut for Argentinos Juniors in 1985 in the first division, and played for five years for the team before moving abroad, to Spain.
He made his debut in La Liga with CD Tenerife, under the management of countryman Jorge Solari. During this period, Real Madrid twice lost the league title to arch-rivals FC Barcelona on the final day of the season, in matches against Tenerife, who were managed by Jorge Valdano and, when Valdano was appointed manager of Real Madrid in the summer of 1994, the player also made the move, for a fee of $5 million dollars.
The key years of Redondo's career were spent at Real Madrid, where he was twice league champion and won two UEFA Champions League medals (in 1997–98 and 1999–2000). It was during the second victorious campaign in Europe that Redondo arguably turned in his finest performances. New coach Vicente del Bosque utilised him in a powerful midfield combination with Steve McManaman; in the quarterfinals against Manchester United at Old Trafford, he was the author of a spectacular play in which he dribbled past defender Henning Berg by backheeling the ball around him, recovering it and assisting Raúl for Real Madrid's third goal (3–2 win, 3–2 on aggregate). Sir Alex Ferguson said after the game “What does this player have in his boots? A magnet?” After winning the final against Valencia CF, he was named the competition's Most Valuable Player.
In 2000, Redondo transferred to Serie A club A.C. Milan, in a highly controversial £11m move, which left many Real Madrid fans perplexed. However, he was injured in one of his first training sessions and was unable to play for the next 2½ years due to his injury. He suspended his £2.74m-a-year salary, and even tried to give back the house and car which the Milan board had given him.
In 2004, at the age of 34, Redondo retired from professional football following yet another knee injury. Following his retirement, he moved back to Buenos Aires to be closer to his family. He was good friends with Diego Maradona, who acted as a mentor to the young Redondo early in his career.
Since entering retirement, Redondo often appeared in many high profile exhibition matches contested by select squads of past and present footballing greats, including; Franco Baresi, Franz Beckenbauer, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Zlatko Zahovič, Aleksandr Mostovoi, Marco van Basten and Tony Yeboah, amongst others.
Read more about this topic: Fernando Redondo
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