Rio Ferdinand--Five Star--The Biography (24 page)

And so it appeared that the 2011/2012 season would bring down the curtain on Rio’s time at Manchester United. Some of the press speculated he might move abroad. One possible option, though, was closer to home. Harry Redknapp, formerly his boss at West Ham, was expressing interest in signing him to Tottenham Hotspur, where he was now manager. ‘He’s been fantastic for me,’ Redknapp had told
The Guardian
in October 2011. ‘I signed him when he was a little kid, so I love Rio.’

Rio’s stormy career would resume periodically, only to crash and burn within weeks. Problems never seemed far away. On 9 December 2012, someone in the home crowd at United’s derby game against Manchester City threw a coin at him, causing yet another injury. On 5 March 2013, for instance, an unhappy Rio reacted to the sending off of Nani during a Champions League defeat to Real Madrid by giving a sarcastic clap to referee Cüneyt Çakır. Rio went unpunished by UEFA for his behaviour.

The following week, on 14 March, luck smiled on Rio’s international career. Hodgson recalled him to the England squad for two World Cup qualifiers, against San Marino and Montenegro. But not for long. Just four days later, he had to drop out due to, yet again, ‘fitness concerns’.

It was some kind of a last straw and Rio Ferdinand had had enough. In May 2013, the 33-year-old announced he was retiring from the international game. ‘It’s the right time to make room for young players,’ he said, ‘and focus on the club career’.

It was a logical decision. After all, his peak year had been as far back as 2002, the year he had signed to Manchester United for some £30m and flourished in the World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Back then, his partnership with Sol Campbell in the centre of defence was considered one of the finest in the international game. His performance throughout the finals epitomized his standing in the team as an automatic first choice for then-manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, and he continued to be a giant in defence with John Terry for a further four years.

Now Ferdinand felt great disappointment at having to withdraw. As Sam Wallace wrote with considerable regret in the
Independent
newspaper: ‘It means that a player generally regarded as one of the most naturally talented
defenders that English football has ever produced will only ever have represented his country at two major international tournaments.’

At least there was some solace at Old Trafford. Just a few days later, Rio was able to end Sir Alex Ferguson’s time at the club on a high: he scored the winning goal in United’s 2-1 victory against Swansea City. The goal came about when the ball found its way to him at the back post, and he hit it on the volley. It marked the end of the Ferguson era in impressive fashion: Manchester United won the Premiership yet again, meaning the manager could retire with glory, and Rio could boast another winner’s medal.

B
y 2013, Rio Ferdinand’s footballing fortune was estimated by
Goal
magazine to be worth around £42 million. For at least five years, he had been earning upwards of £100,000 every week. Whenever United won a trophy, he would be awarded a huge bonus, believed to be over £300,000 every year. On social media site Twitter, his forthright opinions had attracted nearly six million followers by September 2014.

His extra-curricular business activities away from football were no less impressive. Over the years, he had held at least ten appointments either as a company director or secretary. He was involved in setting up the record label White Chalk Music which in April 2012 had showed a ‘net worth’ of £600,000. Other business interests have included #5, an online lifestyle magazine, and a fashion label called
fivebyrioferdinand.com
. Then there has been his
considerable financial stake in Scion Films Sale and Leaseback Sixth LLP (worth £62m in 2012), a Manchester restaurant called Rosso, endorsements for Mars and Nike products, and a plethora of property in London, Barbados, Morocco, Turks and Caicos Islands, plus his Alderley Edge mansion. Not that it’s all about the money for Rio Ferdinand – he has been a fervent supporter of many charities, and has been outspoken about the horrors of knife crime.

On the football front, Sir Alex Ferguson may have been leaving Manchester United, but Rio Ferdinand was staying put. Soon after, the club made an announcement that the player had signed a new year-long contract, for the 2013/2014 season. Taking over from Ferguson was former Everton boss David Moyes, who joined United in June 2013. Ferdinand would be less enthusiastic about Moyes’ management style, but because of the extension to his contract, he did not feel in a position to speak out. But what was clear was that United’s winning formula was less sure under Moyes than it had been under Ferguson. Of seven pre-season matches over the summer of 2013, United would win just two.

Compared to the glory years of Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes’ managerial stint at Old Trafford was a flop. Rio may have been in the United side for the 2013/2014 season, but the team’s results were underwhelming, and they were barely maintaining a mid-table position in the Premiership. By April 2014, Moyes had been dismissed (after just ten months as manager), to be replaced on a temporary basis by Ryan Giggs. In the final weeks of the season, Giggs helped the team regain at least some credibility; United finished in seventh place in the league, which meant they just about qualified for the Euro League.

Over the club’s disappointing season, Rio had mostly
kept silent about Moyes’ management style. Instead he aimed to support his teammates whenever he could, only speaking out after Moyes’ departure about his frustration. ‘When you are not playing football you are not happy,’ Rio said in 2014. ‘So whenever I wasn’t playing, that was exactly the case.’

Moyes’ permanent replacement would be the Dutchman Louis van Gaal. One of the most experienced of coaches, his appointment at United was greeted with great excitement, partly because at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, he guided the Netherlands national team to third place. But if Rio expressed satisfaction at van Gaal’s appointment, he knew deep down that his full-time position at Manchester United was in jeopardy. He was now thirty-five years old, and career possibilities lay elsewhere, it seemed.

One option lay in the world of television. Ferdinand had some experience in this field. In 2006 he had fronted a special for ITV called
Rio’s World Cup Wind-Ups,
consisting of practical jokes involving hidden cameras. The targets of the pranks were fellow English footballers, and each stunt would end with the immortal slogan,
‘You got merk’d!’

Eight years on, Rio’s TV career would now take a different, more serious path. The opportunity arose for him to take over as a football pundit for the BBC’s World Cup coverage in Brazil, following the departure of long-time contributor (and ex-Liverpool defender) Alan Hansen. Ferdinand would also replace Hansen on the BBC’s
Match of the Day.

Ironically, Hansen revealed that Ferdinand’s often irreverent approach to football may have been one contributory factor in his retirement. ‘Rio, and Twitter, are two of the factors which prove to me that the time is right to move on after more than two decades,’ he wrote in his
final column for the
Daily Telegraph.
‘Rio and I have both played the game at the back at the top level for the biggest clubs and we see and say many of the same things, but Rio brings a freshness to it and ensures that what he says sounds different to what I say, even if we are saying the same thing.’

Hansen said: ‘I have had my time and now others like Rio will come along and do the same, joining Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer in the
Match of the Day
studio and taking
Match of the Day,
an iconic programme, onwards and upwards.’

Despite Hansen’s endorsement of Ferdinand, there were those who wondered how Rio would fare against a more established
Match of the Day
regular, Robbie Savage. The pair had clashed in the tunnel at Old Trafford a couple of years earlier when Savage had been playing for Blackburn Rovers, and this led to a second ‘clash’, this time on Twitter. ‘I thought you’d still be pleading with Capello to give you the captaincy back,’ tweeted Savage. ‘You’re not getting it. Bore off pal.’ Ferdinand laughed it off with: ‘No mate, I don’t bite… only time you got under my skin I smashed you into the tunnel wall!’

Rio had made a sizeable splash for the BBC during the World Cup coverage. The
Daily Mail
wrote: ‘Rio Ferdinand is not to everyone’s taste, but he speaks from a position of tremendous authority on the current game and is improving.’ In August 2014, Rio did indeed debut on
Match of the Day,
and also became part of BT Sport’s commentary team. Familiar with spontaneity as a player, he was more apprehensive about becoming a commentator. ‘You are going into the unknown,’ he told the London
Evening Standard
newspaper. ‘I know what I need to say but it’s projecting it in the right way, researching, getting everyone’s
names, seeing the style of play that is going on and then translating that to the camera for people to understand. That’s something you’ve got to learn.’

But Ferdinand had not entirely succumbed to a media career. He remained determined to return to the football field as a player – in fact, he had taken his own personal trainer to Brazil to ensure his fitness levels did not flag.

It was in fact the Dutch footballing legend Ruud Gullit (another to join the team of pundits on
Match of the Day
in 2014) who encouraged Rio to keep going as a player. ‘He told me the couple of years he had at Chelsea were some of the most enjoyable of his career,’ revealed Ferdinand, ‘because there wasn’t at that time the pressure of trying to win.’

In Ferdinand’s own newspaper column, for the
Daily Mail,
he assessed a variety of football managers. Hodgson lacked the extra ingredient to set him apart. Capello’s boot camp was badly flawed. McClaren was scarred by his failure. Keegan found the job too big. Only Glenn Hoddle got Rio’s full support for the job of England manager, for Hoddle had vision. Louis van Gaal was big on discipline and won his teams’ respect.

Rio’s migration to television and newspaper columns had come about after the end of his final one-year contract at United. He professed to feel ready for new challenges, and was philosophical about leaving his league club after over ten years. While he would have welcomed more games under van Gaal, he knew that realistically there could be no team built around someone of his age.

So where to next? While still at Old Trafford, he had been approached to join Barcelona or Real Madrid, but had not been sufficiently tempted. ‘I was winning things,’ he later explained, ‘so my head was never turned to go
anywhere else.’ Instead, he chose a club a little closer to home, and on 17 July 2014, he signed a one-year contract at Queens Park Rangers. The prospect of returning to his native London was irresistible, especially as his old mentor from West Ham, Harry Redknapp, had taken over at Loftus Road in 2012.

‘It’s not about money,’ Rio told reporters after the signing was announced. ‘I had loads of more lucrative offers available to me. I still feel I’ve got something to offer and I’m excited about helping this club cement its place in the Premier League.’

Harry Redknapp said Ferdinand’s addition to the QPR defence was timely. The club had just returned to the Premiership after winning promotion, and the manager promised that Rio would bring an exquisite combination of ‘quality, class, experience and know-how’. ‘During his time at Manchester United,’ he told the club’s website, ‘he was the best defender in Europe, if not the world. To bring him to QPR is a remarkable coup for the club.’

In signing with QPR, Rio had agreed to a substantial drop in wages. At Manchester United, he had earned £200,000 a week. He would be on less than a third of that figure, it was estimated, at his new home, but the message was clear: he still wanted to just play football. The main thing was that he was back with Harry Redknapp, and in a further neat coincidence, Glenn Hoddle (the man who had selected Rio for the England team way back in 1997) was a member of the Loftus Road coaching staff.

All the same, Rio’s spell at the London club began inauspiciously. On 25 July 2014, during a pre-season game against Red Bull Leipzig, Rio had been instrumental in a first-half clean sheet for Rangers – only to then be removed at half-time. Many believed that had he stayed on the
pitch, Rangers might not have lost. As it was, Leipzig forged ahead with two goals.

Rio’s departure from Manchester United had meant he was now freer to speak his mind on certain footballing issues. When Steven Gerrard stepped down as England captain after the World Cup, Rio publicly backed Wayne Rooney as a worthy potential successor. ‘It would seem like a natural progression. I think Wayne is the most influential player that England have got at the moment, now Steven has gone. He’s experienced now, he has played at the top level and he’s won a lot of things. He knows the game.’

In fact, despite his new home in west London, he told the city’s
Evening Standard
newspaper in August 2014 that he was backing his old club, Manchester United, as the likely League winners for the 2014/2015 season. Neither QPR nor United had begun the season well, but in September, the teams faced each other, and it was United which came out on top. Their first win of the season, they succeeded in style, trouncing Rangers 4-0.

Rio understood that the pressures on Queens Park Rangers were different to those at his previous club. ‘I’ve got to adjust to a different mindset,’ he told the
Evening Standard
. ‘Success isn’t winning trophies, it’s about staying in the Premier League, and that’s obviously a big difference to playing for Man United where the expectations were huge in terms of winning.’

What with a media career in full swing, and now a move to London to continue his football career, Rio Ferdinand was entering another exciting chapter in a long and distinguished career. Still not yet ready for a spell in management, he was prepared for one more stint on the field – but would this stint at QPR mark his final days as a player? At the time of writing, it remains to be seen.