“The times when I got offers to go to Real Madrid and Barcelona,
they were in transition. I’d have been leaving and hoping they came
back to being great again in the next two or three years. But I didn’t
want to wait. I was winning then and wanted to continue winning.”
Ferdinand won ten major trophies during his Manchester United
career, even if they eluded him at international level with England.
He never played at the European Championship, having been
banned in 2004 for missing a drugs test. He was due to skipper the
Three Lions at the 2010 World Cup, but injury struck a week before
the start of the tournament. “That killed me,” he sighs. “But
sometimes you play your best games when you’re not there,
because we were terrible.”
Ferdinand’s legacy for club and country was already secure – he
is rightly regarded as one of England’s finest centre-backs. “It’s nice
when people say stuff like that,” he smiles. “You play football to win
trophies and earn respect from your peers. I always knew my worth
in the team I was in. If I wasn’t there, I wanted all the other players
to think, ‘We’re not as good when Rio doesn’t play.’ I’d like to think
I got somewhere near that.”
Of that, there is little doubt. When a poll was conducted recently
to select England’s greatest team, Ferdinand was picked to partner
Bobby Moore at centre-back. And as was pointed out to him shortly
before 2 a.m. on that 2008 night in Moscow, only three players
have ever lifted the European Cup for Manchester United: Bobby
Charlton, Peter Schmeichel and Rio Ferdinand. It’s not bad
company to keep.When asked to pick his best-ever performance, it’s perhaps little
wonder that he chooses a game from the 2007–08 campaign, and
United’s run to Champions League glory. “The Camp Nou,” he says,
referencing the night when United returned home with a 0-0 draw
from the first leg of their semi-final, going on to win the second 1-0.
“We kept a clean sheet in both legs of that semi against Barcelona,
with their forward line: Samuel Eto’o, Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry.
“They had some ridiculous players, and over 180 minutes we
kept them out. Not just for me as an individual, but as a team, it
was our best defensive performance. That was all about
concentration – it’s one of the biggest assets for any defender.”
Then came that final against Chelsea in Moscow. “It was a crazy
night, something that will live long in my memory,” he says. “It was
a mountain you thought you’d never be able to get up and conquer.”
When John Terry stepped up to take Chelsea’s fifth penalty in
the shootout, did Ferdinand think United’s hopes of victory were
over? “Yeah,” he admits. “I’d watched him take penalties in training
with England, and he’d always been so cool and calm under
pressure. At that point, I didn’t see it turning out the way it did.”
Terry slipped on the sodden surface and hit the woodwork,
taking the shootout to sudden death. Anderson and Ryan Giggs
converted United’s sixth and seventh penalties before Edwin van
der Sar kept out Nicolas Anelka’s spot-kick to secure victory.
“I was next, so I was f**king happy Edwin saved Anelka’s
penalty,” says Ferdinand, revealing that he was eighth on the Red
Devils’ list. “My legs were jelly and I didn’t know what was going to
happen – I wouldn’t have scored, man. I was too nervous.
“When we finally won, the feeling was unbelievable. The only
way I’ve described it is if you could bottle that emotion and sell it,
you’d become a billionaire. You don’t get that feeling anywhere
else. To be a football player and conquer that... it’s f**king mad.”
That ability to challenge for the biggest honours with United was
what persuaded him to turn down offers from the most high-profile
overseas clubs. “Fabio Capello tried to take me to Roma when I was
at West Ham, and later on I received offers from both Real Madrid
and Barcelona,” he admits. “But when you get to Manchester United
and you’re winning, it’s hard to leave that. Winning is an addiction,
and once I was at United, I felt I was at the top of the tree.Anti-clockwise from
far left “What on earth
are you wearing, lad?!”;
Ferdinand calls one of
these two players “the
aggressor...”; “Come on,
Carra, we’re never going
to do the Hokey Cokey”;
the night Rio conquered
a mountain in Moscow
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FourFourTwo.com The Story of Man Utd 111