Rio Ferdinand--Five Star--The Biography (8 page)

A few weeks later Rio was featured in a column in London’s
Evening Standard
called Sporting Questions, which provided a further insight into the young star’s life. In it he described his own character as ‘determined, laidback and positive’, and denied he was vain ‘unless I get a big old spot’. Margaret Thatcher was ‘the last person I’d invite to my birthday party’. And he said he had no fears about growing any older: ‘Life can only get more exciting.’

Rio had chipped in some cash to help his mum Janice set up a children’s nursery in the Old Kent Road, although he told the paper that the job he would least like to have was ‘being a headmaster and meeting all those angry parents. Too much stress!’

At this time Rio’s all-time sporting hero was US basketball star Michael Jordan and his favourite soccer game was Brazil versus Italy in the World Cup Final of 1982.

His maturity came out when he answered a couple of other questions:

What was your own best performance?

‘I believe others should decide on that.’

Do you have any obvious flaws as a footballer?

‘I do have – but I don’t want everyone to know them.’

By the early spring of 1998 Rio genuinely believed that he was back to his best form in the lead-up to that summer’s World Cup in France. He’d had a few poor games a couple of months earlier, but now he had a realistic chance of going to the biggest football tournament in the world even though he’d only been used as a substitute, coming on late in the World Cup warm-up against Belgium.

But time was certainly on Rio’s side. When Brazil arrived
in the United States for the 1994 World Cup Final they brought with them a buck-toothed kid in braces called Ronaldo. He was there merely to soak up the experience and it seemed highly likely that Rio would do the same in France if he was picked for the squad. As Rio himself said: ‘A mate pointed out the other day that I could play in four World Cup Finals but, to do that, I know I have to take care of myself and look after me body.’

In May 1998 Glenn Hoddle chose his final squad of 22 players for France ’98. Rio was one of them. He walked back to his room at the England hotel in Hertfordshire, sat down on the edge of the bed and found himself engulfed in a full range of emotions. For a while he couldn’t utter a word. Then came a breathless excitement at what it all meant to him and his family, and he made an ecstatic call home to break the news. ‘When Glenn said simply that I was in, it was the most unbelievable feeling. I had been champing at the bit, nervous, expectant, not knowing what to think.’

After his family, he called up his close friend Frank Lampard junior to tell him that he wouldn’t be taking a planned two-week holiday in the sun after all. And Harry Redknapp, Rio’s ever-loyal boss, said: ‘Everyone is talking about Rio going along for the ride and experience, but if he gets the chance in the World Cup he’s going to be a permanent fixture. Getting selected for the squad is a marvellous tonic for the lad and it’s wonderful for West Ham too. It’s been a long time since those three West Ham greats, Moore, Hurst and Peters, helped England win the World Cup but if Rio keeps maturing as I believe he will he could be right up there with them too. Rio is going to get enormous experience over the next month and it’s going to help West Ham in the Premiership next season.’

During France ’98 Rio and Michael Owen formed an
even closer friendship. Rio was the elder by almost a year. The two made a point of catching up with the latest gossip, swapping a few friendly insults and engaging in a bit of teenage banter. These two young men clearly had the world at their feet. The money in the Premiership meant that neither of them should have a financial worry for the rest of his life. Rio explained: ‘Although Michael and me don’t share a room we do have a fair bit in common. We tend to knock round together. We play table tennis, snooker and all the usual things.’

But one thing they didn’t have in common was music. ‘Michael doesn’t know anything about music,’ Rio said, adding: ‘House, garage, soul and swing. I like them all. Michael? He doesn’t mind Lionel Richie.’

Rio continued: ‘Golf is Michael’s thing. He plays a lot of golf.’ Owen offered Rio some great advice about how to cope with the sudden influx of fame, a subject on which Rio commented: ‘I can’t believe how quickly it’s happened for Michael. The hype which surrounds him now is on a par with what happened to Ronaldo. Well done to him – he deserves it but it can be tough. I’ve sampled a bit of it myself but nothing compared to Michael. I know him well enough though to be sure he won’t change. He will need to keep an eye on things but he will be okay. I’ve seen him, remember. He just signs a few autographs when it’s needed and then gets on with his life.’

Rio might well have been talking about himself when he spoke about Owen except there was one big difference – Owen was born in a quiet town to a family led by a pro footballer father while Rio was born on a dangerous inner-city estate where temptation lay around every corner. Maybe that’s why Rio preferred to switch most conversations involving Owen to himself and how he was
coping with stardom. ‘There are times when things have become a little hectic for me when I’ve gone out shopping to Dagenham or somewhere but that’s nothing compared with what Michael is going through.’

Although Rio had squeezed into England’s World Cup squad, in the end he didn’t make an appearance. Some believed he might have had his chance if it were not for that single mistake of being convicted for a drink-driving offence.

England’s eventual defeat against Argentina in France left the nation in a state of depression over the failure to progress any further than the last 16. But many observers believed that with up-and-coming young players like Rio waiting in the wings things could only get better.

Old-time England stalwart Terry Butcher – so heroic against Argentina in that quarter-final clash with Maradona in the 1986 World Cup – put it perfectly when he said: ‘Young Rio, with his wonderful confidence on the ball, should take his place and operate as England’s sweeper. He’s definitely the way forward. It’s time for England to turn to youth. While we’re all down in the dumps, feeling so sick after the defeat against Argentina, the future really is looking bright.’

Rio’s fan club seemed to be growing by the minute.

I
n the weeks following his return to West Ham in the close season, Rio had time to wonder if Glenn Hoddle's decision not to play him in the finals had anything to do with his drink-driving arrest. ‘The papers don't think about younger players' feelings and how much they can affect them with some of the things they write, but there are a lot of hard people out there and I have got strong people around me and I have put it to the back of my mind. You just have to make sure it doesn't happen twice. You have got to be an idiot if it happens twice. I am not going to do another thing as stupid as that again.'

Many hoped that Rio – still only 19 – wouldn't live to regret those brave words. There was an overriding feeling that he was basically a good person – an honourable kid who'd fought his way out of the ghetto and away from bad influences through sheer hard work. As he himself later
said: ‘You have got to be strong and have strong people around you to get away from them. It is not even getting away from them, it is just being able to focus your ambition or something and I had an ambition in life to be a footballer. It was drummed into me to have the right manners off the pitch and treat people in the right kind of way and then people will treat you right, too. My dad always said to me when I was younger that you have got to be a totally different person on the pitch to what you are off it. On the pitch, you have got to be nasty and have a lot of discipline and aggression. When I was younger, a lot of people said I was very kind and that they hoped I didn't take it into football. I don't think I have.'

Meanwhile, at West Ham's Chadwell Heath training ground, Harry Redknapp continued to be blown away by Rio's extraordinary natural talent. The Hammers' boss explained: ‘We used to do these one-on-ones, where the attacker would face one defender as he went in on goal. Eyal Berkovic said to me once, “I've been here two years and it's a waste of time if you get Rio. I've never seen him beaten.” It was true. Even Paolo Di Canio would try all his tricks, but then make a move and Rio would nick the ball away from him.'

At the beginning of the 1998–9 season West Ham's fans proclaimed on their website that Rio was definitely the Hammers player to watch. They wrote: ‘Matured greatly during last season, and one of the best defenders around today. A tall player, who isn't afraid to run with the ball and make himself available in the opposition's penalty area during corners …'

Then Rio further endeared himself to the West Ham fans through reports in the Spanish press that he'd turned down
a £12-million move to Real Madrid and had instead stuck to his long-term contract with the Hammers. Now, with lightning-fast striker Ian Wright signed from Arsenal, there was a feeling at Upton Park that great things lay ahead for the east Londoners.

And joining Rio in the back there were so-called hardman Neil ‘Razor' Ruddock, who'd arrived from Liverpool for a bargain-basement £750,000, and Chilean international and World Cup defender Javier Margas, who spent his first day at the Hammers' training ground trying to get to know the only fellow South American. The Chilean defender had heard all about the young Brazilian who'd taken the Premiership by storm and wanted to meet him. How was he supposed to know that Rio was his real name, not a nickname relating to his place of birth?

But it was seasoned campaigner Ruddock who would prove to be Rio's most important guiding light. Ruddock quickly concluded that his talented young teammate could handle all the pressure. Within weeks of joining the Hammers, he told one journalist: ‘He's a different class. Seeing him every day in training and playing in matches with him, I can see what a quality act he is.' Ruddock, six feet two, well over 12 stone and 30 years old, was a classic journeyman footballer, having started his career as an apprentice at Millwall before joining Tottenham, Southampton and Liverpool as well as being loaned out to a number of clubs along the way.

Ruddock was a tough, blunt Londoner with a strong heart and a no-nonsense approach to the game. Many put him up with Vinnie Jones as one of the classic ‘enforcers' of English soccer in the nineties. Rio, the graceful young apprentice with superb ball control and an uncanny ability to dribble and to dummy opponents, could not have been a more different player.

However, Ruddock soon influenced Rio's play on the field. He later explained: ‘I think my experience over 13 years helped Rio. I just told him to keep talking, keep talking. Even if it's rubbish you're saying, just keep talking because it helps concentration and others around you. Rio even helps me now.'

And Harry Redknapp obviously liked the idea of ‘Razor' keeping an eye on West Ham's most important investment of all time. Before his move from Liverpool that summer, Ruddock had only really seen Rio on television. ‘But as soon as I got on the training ground with him I could tell he was an exceptional player. When I came into the team at Southampton I was really helped by having players like Jimmy Case and Russell Osman alongside me. They really brought me on by playing with me and talking to me all the time. That's a big part of the game, something you don't realise when you're young, and I'm sure I can help him just by being there.'

Later Rio acknowledged that he learned a lot from Ruddock. Some at West Ham say to this day that Razor's toughness rubbed off on the teenager and helped his game develop in a different direction. Says Ruddock now: ‘Rio was a bit of an artist with the ball, subtle, capable of all sorts of trickery but he wasn't too sure how to handle anyone coming at him at full pelt.' Ruddock taught Rio how to give as good as he got and that, more than anything, helped the younger player to establish himself in the West Ham team during the 1998–9 season.

Rio showed a diplomatic side to his character when – on the eve of the Hammers' early-season home clash with Man United – he made a public appeal to West Ham fans to lay off David Beckham, who was still under a cloud after being
sent off in the World Cup clash with Argentina. Rio said: ‘Obviously, I do not want him to play well against us, but it would be great if the fans got off his back a bit. People should remember that David did not lose the match for England. Just as the team win games, the team also lose, and David has more than paid for what he did.'

On 17 September 1998 West Ham lost 1–0 to bottom-of-the-First-Division Huddersfield in the first leg of the second round of the Coca-Cola Cup, and Harry Redknapp was left fuming because his side had torn their opponents apart but still failed to score. At one stage Rio ran unchallenged the full length of the pitch before lashing a rising drive an inch over the crossbar. It seemed like a nasty case of history repeating itself for Redknapp and his assistant Frank Lampard senior. Both had been in the West Ham side that handed Huddersfield one of their biggest-ever giant-killing feats in a Cup match – a 4–2 victory in the FA Cup fifth round 25 years earlier.

After the latest game, Redknapp explained: ‘I was sitting there watching us miss chances and I feared that might happen. We just didn't take them. They had one break and put their chance away. I would be the first to complain if our attitude was wrong but there was nothing wrong with it at all tonight. Some of the football we played was excellent. It's the first time this season we haven't scored. I couldn't see them scoring but somehow they did. The tie is still evenly balanced and we've got them at home now.'

Rio knew that the current season was crucial to his development as a player because there had undoubtedly been a few occasions where he'd definitely come off second best. ‘Putting that right is something I have to sort out in my head and I've got to do things the right way off the pitch as well. If I have to curb a few of the things I'd
like to do, then I will, because I have to be right psychically and mentally. The World Cup was a great experience even if I didn't play. My goal for the season is to start getting into the England team as a regular and I know that'll need hard work and dedication. But first and foremost I've got to get things right for West Ham. If I don't, then nothing else will follow.'

A couple of weeks later all Rio's plans were shattered by a leg injury which meant he had to pull out of the England squad for the European Championship qualifier in Sweden.

But none of this stopped Harry Redknapp making yet more predictions for his young defender. ‘He will be the best defender in Europe by the time the European Championship Finals are staged in 2000,' he said. ‘Rio is ready for England now. He's outstanding but he's nowhere near his peak.' Redknapp urged Glenn Hoddle to select Rio as soon as he was fit again for the up-and-coming Euro 2000 qualifiers.

But the headlines and accolades were just the tip of the iceberg. Among football's elite, Rio's name was on everyone's lips. Meanwhile he kept his Walkman turned up loud and tried to drown out the praise in case it backfired on him. He put it perfectly when he said: ‘I turn on to anything; soul, swing, house, garage, reggae. Anything that helps me switch off.'

The buzz on Rio's footballing ability was growing by the day. His twentieth birthday, on 7 November 1998, was marked by a superb article in
The Times
by Oliver Holt. This is just a small taste of what he wrote:

‘Ferdinand is one of the few genuine creative defenders to have emerged in this country in the past 20 years, a player who is much, much more than a stopper. He can defend with the best of them – as he showed in his
shackling of Alan Shearer during West Ham's 3–0 victory over Newcastle at St James's Park last Saturday – but he also has a great gift for turning defence into attack. Ferdinand is the forerunner of a new breed, the first genuine English sweeper of his generation, a player who can glide forward with the ball. A player like him can change the balance of a team, give them an extra weapon that opponents do not have. Other defenders save attacking forays for set pieces; Ferdinand is always seeking out the opportunity to burst forward.'

In November 1998 Rio, recovered from injury, got his England call-up for the friendly against Czechoslovakia. England won 2–0, although Rio almost let in a goal in the dying minutes. But he knew there wouldn't be too much backlash from Glenn Hoddle because he had encouraged Rio to break with the ball as often as possible. ‘It's something you do at the right time, rather than playing a safe ball,' had always been Hoddle's advice. The problem on this occasion was that Rio gave the ball away and goalie Nigel Martyn was forced to make a good save to stop the Czechs taking the gloss off an otherwise fine England performance.

Off the pitch, however, it seemed that even when Rio was keeping a low profile others were determined to try and link him with trouble. The 20-year-old was fast asleep at the house in Mottingham he'd bought for his mother when he was alleged to have been a witness to a fight at the Epping Forest Country Club which ended in a man being slashed with a broken bottle. Rio assured detectives he wasn't even at the club – a renowned hangout for soccer stars, criminals and soap stars – on the night of the attack.

Rio's new agent, Pinhas – better known as Pini – Zahavi, explained afterwards: ‘Rio never goes out on a Friday night before a match, so this is a joke. He is a very serious professional. There is no chance of him being there. I think we should wait for the police to complete their investigation and see what happens then.'

This was one of the first times Zahavi had talked publicly on behalf of Rio. The agent already counted Terry Venables, Graeme Souness and Alex Ferguson as his associates and that link with Old Trafford was to later prove crucial to Rio's career. Zahavi – a former sports reporter – brokered his first deal when in 1979 he brought Avi Cohen from Maccabi Tel Aviv to Liverpool. Shortly afterwards he took former Crystal Palace player Barry Silkman, also now an agent, from Manchester City to Maccabi Haifa.

Even Harry Redknapp rated the Israeli Zahavi as ‘a man who can get things done'. But many were now asking how Rio ended up on the books of this mystery man from the Middle East. In fact it all started when Rio was just 15 and he met Zahavi for an informal chat at West Ham's training ground. A couple of years later Rio signed a formal agreement with Zahavi, who was also recommended to Rio by his West Ham teammate Eyal Berkovic, who was already with the agent. In time Zahavi came to consider Rio to be ‘almost like a son'. He explained how it all started: ‘I saw Rio first and knew immediately he was going to be a great player. He had asked Berkovic and he had a feeling he would be better with an international agent like me than a local agent.'

Back in Israel, Zahavi – who came from the same sort of humble beginnings as Rio – was known as a man of his word. A man who kept promises. His old friend Jacob Shachar explained: ‘He has kept his promises to all our friends as we have grown up through the years. He is very loyal.'

And Harry Redknapp had no doubts about Zahavi's intentions towards Rio. ‘He is a gentleman. Agents have a terrible reputation but Pini is a decent guy. Rio is in safe hands.'

Former client Barry Silkman added: ‘I would say he is one of the top four agents in the world and he is one of the few men in the game I would trust.'

Back at West Ham, Rio's best mate at the club, Frank Lampard junior, must have found it difficult at times to cope with the spotlight so frequently being turned on his friend. Lampard, shy, mild-mannered and the apple of every dinner lady's eye at Upton Park, was known as ‘Junior' to virtually everyone at West Ham. He spent a lot of time reminding Rio that if it hadn't been for Harry Redknapp, and to a lesser extent his own father, assistant manager Frank senior, neither of them would have progressed so fast.

So when West Ham agreed a new deal with Lampard it seemed that both young players would remain at Upton Park for the foreseeable future. Lampard admitted to friends he was influenced by Rio's earlier decision to sign a new deal with the Hammers and that had helped him decide to stay at the club. It was clear that West Ham wanted to hold on to their two ‘investments' and watch them mature into even more valuable players.