Rio Ferdinand

Early life

[edit] Formative years and education

Rio Gavin Ferdinand, born on 7 November 1978 in Peckham, London, is the son of Janice, a woman of mixed Irish and English heritage, and Julian Ferdinand, a St Lucian.[2][3] Ferdinand grew up on the Friary estate in Peckham and was part of a large family. Both his parents worked to support their family, his mother as a child carer while his father was a tailor. His parents never married and they separated when he was 14 years old. However, his father remained close, moving to a nearby estate, and he was keen to stay involved in his children's lives, taking them to football training and the local parks.[2][4] He attended Camelot primary school and was a boisterous child who numbered Mike Tyson and Diego Maradona among his heroes.[5]

Ferdinand had a good upbringing and was a happy child but he also had to learn to live without luxuries in poverty-stricken Peckham, a London borough where almost half the population is either poor or borderline poor.[6] Violent crime was a common occurrence in the area he lived, indeed, Damilola Taylor was murdered in the vicinity. However, his parents drilled him with respectful instincts and he largely avoided the darker sides to the neighbourhood.[4] At school he focused on maths and revelled in the opportunity to perform before an audience, portraying Bugsy Malone in a school play.[5] He also impressed his classmates with skill on the playground, constantly playing football, dreaming of turning professional and seeing new places.[4]

"I always as a kid wanted to do something different, I'd get bored very easily - even playing football or hanging around with my mates. So travelling away from home, meeting new people... I enjoyed it."[4]

He chose to attend Blackheath Blue Coats High School, a school somewhat distant from his house, in order to meet new friends and he settled in well, feeling his confidence growing.[2] His second year was marred by the death of a fellow pupil, Stephen Lawrence, and the event demonstrated the ever present threat of violence.[5] Ferdinand enjoyed physical expression, taking part in not just football and gymnastics classes but drama, theatre and ballet too.[4] He was an able child: by age ten he had been invited to train at the Queens Park Rangers F.C. academy and at age eleven he won a scholarship to attend the Central School of Ballet in London.[2] He avidly attended the ballet classes, travelling to the city centre four days a week for four years. However, while the lessons surely improved his balance, it was professional football that he truly desired.[4]

[edit] Youth team career

Ferdinand's superior footballing abilities were evident even as a child: when he was eleven years old a youth coach, David Goodwin, remarked "I'm going to call you Pelé, son, I like the way you play."[4] Ferdinand was regularly playing in youth teams and at Eltham Town he played as an attacking midfielder but team scouts saw the young player had the potential to be a centre half instead. Teams vied for the young footballer's services and during his youth he trained with Charlton Athletic, Chelsea, Millwall and Queens Park Rangers. Ferdinand was ever curious of different places and even travelled north to Middlesbrough's training ground, spending a good part of his school holidays in a bedsit just to be there.[4]

London team West Ham United was to be his footballing home, however, and he joined their youth system in 1992.[2] He signed his first Youth Training Scheme contract in January 1994 and played alongside players such as Frank Lampard at the academy.[4][7] Things were not just burgeoning at club level for Ferdinand; at 16 he joined the England youth team squad to compete in their age-group's UEFA European Football Championship, gaining his first experience of international competition.[4]

[edit] Senior career

[edit] West Ham United

Originally scouted by Frank Lampard Sr., Ferdinand progressed through the youth team ranks, earning a professional contract and a place in the first team squad in the process.[4] On 5 May 1996, Ferdinand made his senior team debut as he came on as a substitute for Tony Cottee in the Hammers' last game of the season, a 1–1 home draw against Sheffield Wednesday.[8][4] In the 1997–98 season, Ferdinand won the Hammer of the Year award at the young age of just 20.[9]

[edit] Leeds United

Ferdinand joined FA Premier League football club Leeds United in November 2000 for £18 million, then a British transfer record as well as becoming the world's most expensive defender. In August 2001 he became the captain of Leeds.

[edit] Manchester United

On 22 July 2002, Ferdinand joined another Premier League club, Manchester United, on a five year deal to become the most expensive British footballer in history, the world's most expensive defender again (a title he had lost in 2001 to Lilian Thuram). The fee included a basic element in the high twenty millions, and some conditional elements, which allowed Leeds to tell their fans that they were selling him for over thirty million. Leeds United later took a single payment in place of all the contingent elements when they were desperate for cash during their financial crisis. The final book value of Ferdinand's contract in Manchester United's accounts was £33 million.[10] This included agents' fees, with Leeds receiving in the region of £30 million. Ferdinand suffered from a lack of form at the start of his Manchester United career; a fact most illustrated by his poor performance against Real Madrid in the Champions League.

In 2003, he failed to attend a drug test, claiming he had forgotten because he was preoccupied with moving houses and instead went shopping. The FA Disciplinary Committee chaired by Barry Bright imposed an eight month ban from January 2004 at club and international level and a £50,000 fine, meaning he would miss the rest of the league season and some of the next along with all of Euro 2004.[11] Manchester United appealed against the verdict and sought to draw parallels to the case of Manchester City player Christian Negouai, who was fined £2,000 for missing a test. However, FIFA president Sepp Blatter stated that such comparisons are inappropriate due to differences between the two cases. Negouai had been stuck in traffic and was willing to take the test, while Ferdinand was charged with "failure or refusal" to attend the test.[12] Both the FA and FIFA sought to have the ban increased to 12 months (half the possible maximum). In the end, the original verdict was upheld.[13]
Ferdinand in a Manchester United shirt

Ferdinand went on to win the Premier League title with Manchester United in his first season. He has also collected a winner's medal in the 2006 Carling Cup, with runners-up medals in the 2003 Carling Cup and the 2005 FA Cup.

On 14 December 2005, in a game against Wigan Athletic, Ferdinand scored his first goal for United, en-route to a 4–0 victory. This was his first goal after more than three years at Old Trafford. He followed this up with a powerfully headed goal against West Bromwich Albion. He then scored a last minute winner against Liverpool at Old Trafford, possibly his most important Manchester United goal to date. In the corresponding fixture in the following season on 22 October 2006, Rio scored again in a 2–0 victory.

Following impressive and consistent performances in the league, Rio Ferdinand was named in the 2006–07 PFA Premiership Team of the Season alongside seven of his fellow Manchester United teammates.[14]

Ferdinand started the 2007–08 season well, he was part of a United defence that managed to keep six clean sheets in a row in the Premier League, before conceding an early goal to Aston Villa at Villa Park on 20 October 2007. It was also during this game where Ferdinand scored his first goal of the season, which was United's third goal of that game, with a left foot strike which took a very strong deflection off one of Villa's defenders. Just three days later, Ferdinand scored his first European goal for United by opening the scoring against Dynamo Kyiv, with a superb header. United dominated the game and won 4–2.

On 12 January 2008 Ferdinand bagged a rare Premier League goal in a 6–0 hammering of Newcastle United at Old Trafford.
Ferdinand celebrating a goal with teammate Cristiano Ronaldo

In their FA Cup quarter-final match against Portsmouth on 8 March 2008 when Manchester United dominated, Ferdinand made a rare appearance as a goalkeeper, after Edwin van der Sar left the pitch with a groin injury and the replacement keeper, Tomasz Kuszczak, was sent off after conceding a penalty. Despite diving the right way, he was unable to save Sulley Muntari's spot kick, and Manchester United were eliminated from the FA Cup.[15]

On 6 April 2008, against Middlesbrough, Ferdinand limped out of the match due to a foot injury. He was rated doubtful whether he would face A.S. Roma in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg on 9 April 2008. He would play the full 90 minutes, though he received three stitches at half-time.[16]

After United's 2–1 loss to Chelsea in the FA Premier League in April 2008 Ferdinand, angry at the defeat, swore at Chelsea stewards and tried to kick a wall in the tunnel, but instead kicked a female steward, Tracy Wray. Ferdinand claimed to have merely brushed her with his foot. [17] Ferdinand said he apologised and sent the steward some flowers.

Despite having been linked with a move to Barcelona, it was announced on 16 April 2008 that, along with Michael Carrick and Wes Brown, Ferdinand had agreed to sign a new five-year contract, worth around £130,000 a week, which would keep him with United until 2013. The contract was finally signed on 15 May 2008.[18]

On 21 May 2008, Ferdinand captained Manchester United to a Champions League Final victory versus Chelsea.[19] He accepted the trophy together with Ryan Giggs, as Giggs was the on field captain for most of the matches during that season during Gary Neville's absence due to injury.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live he criticised FIFA's approach to tackling racism in football, stating that not enough was being done to punish those guilty of homophobic or racist abuse at matches. Regarding taunts aimed at Emile Heskey in England's 4–1 victory against Croatia in Zagreb, Ferdinand remarked:

"Croatia were fined a few thousand quid. What's that going to do? That is not going to stop people shouting racist or homophobic abuse...If things like this keep happening you have to take points off them. Then the punters will realise the team is going to be punished."[20]

[edit] International career

At the age of 19 years and 8 days, Ferdinand earned his first full England cap as a substitute in a friendly against Cameroon on 15 November 1997, making him the youngest defender to play for England at the time, a record broken in 2006 by Micah Richards. At the age of 20, he was selected for the 1998 FIFA World Cup squad as a back-up defender, but was excluded from the final squad by manager Glenn Hoddle after being charged with drink driving. Ferdinand was selected as a first choice player at the 2002 and 2006 tournaments. John Terry replaced Ferdinand in the England side throughout his eight month ban until his return on 9 October 2004 in their World Cup qualifier against Wales. Ferdinand has played ten World Cup matches for England, he was substituted before Henrik Larsson scored for Sweden in the 2006 World Cup). On 25 March 2008, Ferdinand was named captain of England for the friendly against France on 26 March 2008.

The Duran Duran song "Rio" has been used in football chants both for and against Ferdinand; in fact, in 2002, fan Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran's lead singer) promised to re-record one of the football chants if the team won. However, the team failed to win and the promise never had the chance to come to fruition.[citation needed]

Ferdinand has scored three goals for England, the first in the Second round of the 2002 World Cup match against Denmark (although some sources credit this goal as a Thomas Sørensen own goal[21]). The second was a near post strike that beat the Russian goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev in England's Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia on 12 September 2007 at Wembley Stadium. The third on 11 October 2008 in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match at home to Kazakhstan. England won 5–1.

On 25 March 2008 it was announced that Rio would wear the captain's armband for Fabio Capello's second game in charge of the national team,[22] ahead of John Terry, Steven Gerrard or David Beckham, who some believed would be named captain to mark his 100th cap for his country. An FA statement suggested that the decision to name Ferdinand as captain was part of Capello's plans of rotating the captaincy before naming an official captain for September's World Cup qualifiers.

On 19 August 2008 Rio lost out in the race to be captain of England with John Terry retaining the captains armband on a permanent basis. Ferdinand was, however, named vice captain by Fabio Capello.

On 11 October 2008 Rio scored the opening goal in England's 5–1 win over Kazakhstan, a back post header in the 52nd minute. He was also named as captain for this game.

Curiously, although Ferdinand has been named in the last three England World Cup squads (albeit without playing in 1998), he has never been to a European Championship.

Career statistics

Club	Season	League		Cup		League Cup		Europe		Other[23]		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
West Ham United	1995–96	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	1996–97	15	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	17	2
Bournemouth (loan)	1996–97	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	11	0
West Ham United	1997–98	35	0	6	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	46	0
	1998–99	31	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	33	0
	1999–2000	33	0	1	0	3	0	3	0	6	0	46	0
	2000–01	12	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	14	0
	Total	127	2	9	0	12	0	3	0	6	0	157	2
Leeds United	2000–01	23	2	2	0	0	0	7	1	0	0	32	3
	2001–02	31	0	1	0	2	0	7	0	0	0	41	0
	Total	54	2	3	0	2	0	14	1	0	0	73	3
Manchester United	2002–03	28	0	3	0	4	0	11	0	0	0	46	0
	2003–04	20	0	0	0	0	0	6	0	1	0	27	0
	2004–05	31	0	5	0	1	0	5	0	0	0	42	0
	2005–06	37	3	2	0	5	0	8	0	0	0	52	3
	2006–07	33	1	7	0	0	0	9	0	0	0	49	1
	2007–08	35	2	4	0	0	0	11	1	1	0	51	3
	2008–09	19	0	1	0	0	0	5	0	4	0	29	0
	Total	203	6	22	0	10	0	55	1	6	0	296	7
Career total		394	10	32	0	23	0	78	1	6	0	533	11