Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born November 7, 1978 in Peckham, London) is an English footballer of mixed St Lucian and Anglo-Irish descent. He plays at centre-back for Manchester United in the FA Premier League and at the international level for the England national football team. He has achieved more than 50 caps for the English national team, and has competed in three FIFA World Cup tournaments, and at this present time is considered one of the best defenders in the game today.[citation needed]
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Rio Gavin Ferdinand | ||
| Height | 6 ft 3 in / 1.91 m | ||
| Position(s) | Centre Back | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Manchester United | ||
| Number | 5 | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals as of 15 November 2006 | |||
Biography
Club career
Ferdinand signed as a schoolboy for West Ham United in 1992 while a student at Blackheath Bluecoat school and became a professional player under their youth system. He showed immense promise, and was likened to the late Bobby Moore, the former West Ham and England captain. He made his first team debut on 5 May 1996 as a substitute in 1-1 home draw against Sheffield Wednesday.
He 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.
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) and also the premier league's second most expensive player after the arrival of Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea (whose transfer price was between £30 million to £56 million).[citation needed] The fee included a basic element in the high twenty millions, and some conditional elements, which allowed Leeds to tell their fans that the were selling him for over thirty million. Leeds 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 £31.12 million.[1] This included agents' fees of £400k, with Leeds receiving £30.72M.
Ferdinand went on to win the Premier League championship with Manchester United in his first season. He has also collected runners-up medals in the League Cup (2003) and the FA Cup (2005).
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. (They did not.)
Rio's cousin is former English international striker Les Ferdinand, while his brother Anton is currently a first choice centre back for West Ham United. He and his brother held an informal competition on how many goals they could score during the 2005-06 season (neither being prolific goal scorers), which Rio won 3-2.
Before 14 December 2005, he had never scored a goal for United, despite Ferdinand coming up for nearly every corner kick and attacking free-kick. It was only against Wigan Athletic, where he finally scored, en-route to a 4-0 victory over their opponents. 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.
International career
Ferdinand earned his full England cap as a substitute in a friendly against Cameroon on 15 November 1997 making him the 2nd youngest English defender to play for England (Micah Richards broke his record). He played for his country at the 1998, 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup. Rio has played 10 World Cup matches for England, the team in these games have kept seven clean sheets and conceded just four goals whilst he was on the pitch (he was substituted before Henrik Larsson scored for Sweden in the 2006 World Cup).
Ferdinand fulfilled his promise as a world-class defender during the 2002 World Cup, where his partnership with Sol Campbell boasted the stingiest defence during the tournament and he was immediately hailed as the finished product as a result for his confident marshalling of the English defence.
However, former England Manager Sven-Göran Eriksson labelled him as "lazy" during the infamous "fake sheikh" scandal because he was out of form.
TV presenter
In June 2006, on the day of the England national team's opening World Cup group match against Paraguay, Ferdinand made his debut appearance as a television presenter. Hosting 'Rio's World Cup Wind-Ups,' the England defender found himself in a Jeremy Beadle style role, playing tricks on his fellow England World Cup squad members including David Beckham and popularized the phrase, "You got merked!"
It is also reported that Ferdinand is presently filming a documentary about the murder of schoolboy Damilola Taylor. Ferdinand grew up close to the estate where the 10-year-old was killed in 2000, and, in fact went to the same school at the same time (although in different years) as Taylor. The programme is the first in a series to be fronted by Ferdinand to persuade youngsters away from a life of crime.[2]
Controversy
Sex Scandal
Ferdinand was caught up in an alleged sex-tape scandal in 2000 with Frank Lampard, Kieron Dyer, and two females in the resort of Ayia Napa in Cyprus.[3][4]
Missed drug test
In 2003 he failed to attend a drugs test, claiming he had forgotten because he was preoccupied with moving houses (he later took a test and it showed he had no drugs in his system, this was clearly of no relevance though as by the time this test had been taken, many substances could have left his system). Ferdinand was banned for missing the test. The FA 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. Manchester United's appeals to have the ban reduced were turned down. John Terry replaced him in the England side until his return on 9 October 2004 in their World Cup qualifier against Wales.
The Ferdinand drug test saga has caused a huge debate over how footballers found guilty of drug offences should be treated. One of Manchester United's reasons for appealing against the ban was that a Manchester City player had also missed a drugs test but escaped with just a £2,000 fine. Several seasons earlier, Ipswich midfielder Adam Tanner had been banned for just three months after failing a drugs test, Adrian Mutu was also banned for only seven months after failing a drugs test which was after Rio's ban was handed out. These precedents led some to claim that Ferdinand had been made an example, and that the lengthening of his ban to cover Euro 2004 is evidence of this. However, missing a drugs test is quite rightly as serious an offence as failing one, and in most sports Ferdinand would have automatically received a two year ban. Given that the recommended ban was in fact two years and there were no significant mitigating circumstances, many consider that Ferdinand got off very lightly indeed.
It should be noted that Ferdinand was paid in full during his ban by the club, around £4 million pounds.
Alleged homophobia
In October 2006, Ferdinand caused controversy by calling Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles a 'faggot' live on air, just days after team-mate Paul Scholes was also in trouble for an alleged homophobic remark about him being gay with a funny hair do.
Moyles jokingly asked Ferdinand: "If you had to, who would you rather go out with - Smudger or Scholesy?" referring to Alan Smith and Paul Scholes.
Ferdinand replied: "That is not my bag that, that is not my game, talking about going out with geezers" and when Moyles suggested he would always prefer Smith, Ferdinand declared: "You’re a faggot."
He quickly apologised for what he had said, stating "I'm not homophobic".[5]
Driving offences
Ferdinand has committed a string of driving offences and has been banned from driving on four separate occasions. In one instance he was caught driving at 105mph. Most famously he was convicted of drunk driving in 1997, forcing England manager Glenn Hoddle to drop him from a World Cup qualifier that would have been his international debut.[6]
Personal life
On July 24,2006 Rio's girlfriend Rebecca Ellison had a son named Lorenz. Rio has been dating Rebecca for five years and they live together in a £2million Cheshire mansion. After scoring against Liverpool on October 22, 2006, Rio ran to a corner of the Old Trafford pitch to dedicate the goal to his newborn son. He is a close friend of Frank Lampard, with whom he had played with during his time at West Ham United and also participated in a sex tape together.
Honours
- FA Premier League: 2003
- League Cup: 2006
Trivia
- Many people likened his previous corn-rowed appearance to contemporary Hip-Hop artists such as Snoop Dogg and R. Kelly.
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ "Channel 4 to show alleged Premiership sex video". Sunday Herald. 2004-08-15. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "The Big Interview: Rio Ferdinand". The Times. 2006-10-08. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Ferdinand in 'Faggot' Row". Retrieved 2006-10-03.
- ^ [3]