Rio Ferdinand

Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born November 7, 1978 in Peckham, London) is an England Football (soccer) of mixed Saint Lucian and English people-Irish people descent. He plays at centre-back for Manchester United F.C. in the FA Premier League and at the international level for the England national football team.

He is quick, very comfortable on the ball, and has a good reading of the game with ability to take the ball out of defence into attack. Like other contemporary English defenders, he also has good aerial strength. He has achieved 62 cap (football) for the English national team, and has been selected for three FIFA World Cup squads.

Early life

His father, Julian Ferdinand emigrated from St. Lucia. His mother, Janice Lavender, is Anglo-Irish. His parents never married, and they broke up when he was young. He has several brothers and sisters from his parents re-marrying. Anton Ferdinand, the West Ham defender, is his brother, while his cousin is former England striker, Les Ferdinand.

West Ham

After initially being scouted at QPR, Ferdinand signed as a schoolboy for West Ham United F.C. in 1992 while a student at Blackheath, London Bluecoat school and became a professional player under their youth system. He made his first team debut on 5 May 1996 as a substitute in 1-1 home draw against Sheffield Wednesday F.C.. In the 97-98 season, Ferdinand won the Hammer of the Year award at the young age of just 20.

Leeds United

Ferdinand joined FA Premier League football club Leeds United A.F.C. in November 2000 for Pound sterling18 million, then a United Kingdom transfer record, as well as becoming the world's most expensive defender. In August 2001, he became the captain (football) of Leeds.

Manchester United

On 22 July 2002, Ferdinand joined another Premier League club, Manchester United F.C., 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 F.C. (whose transfer price was also about £30 million but is believed that Shevchenko's price is greater). 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 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. This included agents' fees of £400k, with Leeds receiving £30.72 million.

Ferdinand went on to win the Premier League championship with Manchester United in his first season. He has also collected a winner's medal in the Football League Cup (2006) and runners-up medals in the Football League Cup (2003) and the FA Cup (2005).
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 F.C., where he finally scored, en-route to a 4-0 victory over their opponents. He followed this up with a powerfully headed goal against West Bromwich Albion. He then scored a last minute winner against Liverpool F.C. at Old Trafford (football), 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.
Ferdinand and his brother held an informal competition on how many goals they could score during the FA Premier League 2005-06 season (neither being prolific goal scorers), which Rio won 3-2.

Following impressive and consistent performances in the league, Rio Ferdinand was named in the 2006-07 in English football PFA Team of the Year alongside seven of his fellow Manchester United teammates.

International career

Ferdinand earned his full England cap as a substitute in a friendly against Cameroon national football team on 15 November 1997 making him the youngest defender to play for England, 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 a second choice player at the 2002 FIFA World Cup and 2006 FIFA World Cup tournaments. Ferdinand has played ten 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 national football team in the 2006 World Cup).

The Duran Duran song "Rio (song)" 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.)

Ferdinand has scored two goals for England national football team, the first in the 2002 FIFA World Cup match against Denmark national football team. However, some statisticians FIFA World Cup, goals with disputed scorers this, suggesting it was actually an own goal by Danish goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen. The other was a nearpost strike from the Manchester United defender, beating the Vyacheslav Malafeev in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying match against Russia national football team on 12th September 2007 at the Wembley stadium.

TV presenter

In June 2006, on the day of the England national team's opening World Cup group match against Paraguay national football team, 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. However, this was cancelled following a number of filming disasters.

It is also reported that Ferdinand is presently filming a Documentary film about the murder of schoolboy Damilola Taylor. Ferdinand grew up close to the estate where the 10-year-old was killed in 2000. The programme is the first in a series to be fronted by Ferdinand to persuade youngsters away from a life of crime.

Controversy

Missed drug test

In 2003 he failed to attend a drugs test, claiming he had forgotten because he was preoccupied with moving houses. Ferdinand was banned for missing the test. The Football Association 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 2004 European Football Championship. 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 Football World Cup qualifier against Wales national football team.

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 F.C. player had also missed a drugs test but escaped with just a £2,000 fine. However, this case was fairly different, as the player was only late for his test, taking the test two hours later. Several seasons earlier, Ipswich Town F.C. midfielder Adam Tanner had been banned for just three months after failing a drugs test, Adrian Mutu was also banned for only seven months and received a £20,000 fine 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.

Personal

Ferdinand's girlfriend Rebecca Ellison gave birth to son Lorenz on July 24, 2006. He was born at a Manchester hospital and weighed in at 7lbs, 13oz.

Honours

- FA Premier League: 2002-03, 2006-07
- Football League Cup: 2006
- PFA Team of the Year, with Manchester United : 2006/2007
- Community Shield: 2003, 2007