Login
Send a message
Date of Birth: Wednesday, November 8, 1978
Birth Place: England
Height: 190cm
Position: Defender
Former Clubs/Teams: Leeds United, West Ham United

Biography

Rio Ferdinand is a defender for England and Manchester United in the English Premier League. He has been hailed as one of the best defenders in the world, with leadership qualities and the ability to get himself out of trouble. He plays in the centre of defence and has struck up a particularly impressive partnership with Nemanja Vidic at the heart of Manchester United.

Childhood

Rio Ferdinand was born on 7th November 1978, in Peckham, South London. He spent much of his childhood playing football on the estate. Peckham is known as one of the rougher areas in London, with knife and violent crime prominent, but Rio and his younger footballer brother Anton (who plays for Sunderland) kept out of trouble by working hard at School and concentrating on their sport. Rio was a talented gymnast and ballet-dancer as a child, but he only ever really considered football as a career.

Early Career

Rio Ferdinand was signed by west Ham, in spite of interest from other clubs, on a youth contract in 1994, aged just 16 and straight out of school. He joined Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick in the youth teams, and was fast-tracked into the first-team by Harry Redknapp, who believed in throwing youngsters in at the deep end.

Rio Ferdinand made his debut for West Ham United on 5th May 1996. After a stint in the first-team because of an injury crisis at the Hammers, Rio was loaned out to Bournemouth, but returned looking every bit the first-choice central defender. Three seasons at West Ham, helping them to mid-table and challenging for European places, saw him slowly develop into an accomplished defender with the continental trait of being comfortable on the ball.

With Leeds United’s revolution growing a-pace, Rio Ferdinand was signed for a record-breaking £18m. He became the world’s most expensive defender, and was a key man in the team that challenged for the Premiership and made it to the semis of the Champions League. Unfortunately, whilst Leeds performed well in Europe, they failed to qualify for the Champions League again – costing the club millions in lost revenues – and the Yorkshire club was forced to sell some of their most-prized players.

Current Club

Rio Ferdinand broke the records again when he moved from Leeds to Manchester United on 22 July 2002 for ÂŁ31m. Sir Alex Ferguson had been adamant that United signed Rio, at any cost. Ferdinand was installed at the centre of defence alongside Jaap Stam, and looked worth every penny of his transfer fee as United ran away with the Premier League title.

Rio was the first choice centre back, and went on to form significant partnerships with Mikael Silvestre and Ronny Johnsen, but not without controversy. In 2004 he was found guilty of failing to attend a drugs test and was banned from the game for 8 months (a penalty that many felt was harsh at the time).

Rio was forced to wait four years before he could add to his league medal tally – the Arsenal Invincible season and Jose Mourinho’s double meant Manchester United were off the top of the table for three years running. United returned to winning ways with the 2006/07 Carling Cup and Premier League double, before their historic Champions League and Premier League victories of 2007/08.

International

Rio Ferdinand won his first cap when he was just 19 years old, becoming the youngest defender to have ever played for his country when he took to the pitch in November 1997. He was called up to the World Cup 98 squad, though didn’t feature. He also failed to play in Euro 2000 because of a drink-driving offence that kept him out of the squad, though he was an established first-teamer by the time Japan / Korea World Cup 2002 came around.

His missed-drugs-test ban meant that he was out of the Euro 2004 squad, though his England team-mates had nearly gone on strike in order to support Rio and try to get the FA to back down. World Cup 2006 saw England fail at the quarter Finals stage, and England failed to make Euro 2008 – meaning that Ferdinand still hadn’t played in a European Championships, but had gone to three World Cups!

He captained England in September 2008, with new coach Fabio Capello impressed with his leadership qualities, and was named vice-captain behind John Terry in November 2008.