THE
STORY OF
MAn UTD
T
he time was 1.45 a.m. when Bobby Charlton
approached Rio Ferdinand. Almost 12 years on, as he
sits in front of FFT, there’s still a slight tremble in
Ferdinand’s voice as he recalls the words that followed.
The duo were stood inside Moscow’s Luzhniki
Stadium, and Ferdinand was moments away from
collecting the Champions League trophy as Manchester
United captain. Minutes earlier, long past midnight in the
Russian capital, United had beaten Chelsea on penalties- 40 years after the club’s maiden European Cup
triumph and 50 on from the Munich air disaster.
“As Chelsea were going to get their medals, Sir Bobby
came to the bottom of the steps,” Ferdinand tells FFT now. “He said,
‘Rio, do you know what this means?’ Even though we’d just won the
Champions League final, I hadn’t given it any thought. He said, ‘Rio,
you’re the third person to lift this trophy for this club, and I’m one of
them as well. This will change your life.’ He’s a legend for club and
country. He said some other words too, and they were just beautiful.
I started getting all emotional.”
In that moment, Ferdinand had reached the pinnacle of a
glorious career; one in which he twice became the most expensive
defender in the world, won six Premier League titles and amassed
81 caps for England. Among centre-backs, only Bobby Moore and
Billy Wright have ever earned more.
Such greatness never seemed possible for Ferdinand as a youngster
growing up in Peckham, south London. Back then, he had another
hobby – aged 11, he received a scholarship to attend the Central
School of Ballet. If it seemed an unlikely choice, ultimately it would
help his ambitions of becoming a footballer. “Strength, suppleness,
poise, balance – it enhanced all of those things,” he says.
Ferdinand’s graceful skills were initially deployed in midfield. He
was later asked to move into defence but wasn’t keen on the idea.
“I was 14 and someone said, ‘Rio, I don’t want you to play in central
midfield any more, I want you to play centre-back’,” he remembers.
“Being a centre-back wasn’t fashionable – I wanted to be a central
midfielder who scored goals and was the star.
“They said, ‘Yeah, but I think you’ve got a better chance of being
a defender.’ I think I sulked for about two or three weeks, but then
I realised, ‘Actually, you know what? This is my best route if I want
to be a professional footballer.’”
Indeed it was. Ferdinand would swiftly make a career for himself
as a ball-playing centre half. “I was still doing midfielder things as
a defender, which probably helped me stand out from other kids,”
he says. “My brother showed me a video the other day. He’d pulled
an old VHS out of his loft – it was a youth team game for West Ham
against Wimbledon at Upton Park, against Carl Cort. I went to clear
the ball down the line, then chopped back, did a bit of skill and ran
forward. As a centre-back, I was doing things that midfielders would
normally do. It was a feather in my cap.”
Ferdinand joined West Ham United after interest from numerous
London clubs including Charlton Athletic, Chelsea, Millwall and QPR,
and even Middlesbrough in the North East. “I bought into what West
Ham were saying,” he explains. “They had an idea about how they
wanted their club to run. They were investing money and time into
youth team players, getting them into the first team. When I heard
that, I thought, ‘I’ve got a chance here, I’m going to sign.’
“They were true to their word and it wasn’t just me – it was
Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson, Jermain
Defoe, my brother Anton and loads more who went on to play in
the lower leagues. From my era, there must have been 20-25 in
those two or three age groups who played professionally.”
When Ferdinand was 17, Harry Redknapp handed him a first-
team debut against Sheffield Wednesday in May 1996. “Harry
enabled me to go out there and make mistakes without feeling the