The driving force not always recognised in Rio Ferdinand’s rise to the top was his enthusiasm. The opening line of the defender’s retirement statement on Saturday left no room for doubt. Regarding his ongoing passion for football Ferdinand said: “I now feel it’s the right time for me to retire from the game that I love.”
During a stellar 19-year career thoughts occasionally turned to what might follow when the time came to finish. For Ferdinand one thing was clear: the sport would remain prominent, even if only privately rather than professionally.
During a trip to Uganda in June 2007, Ferdinand eagerly volunteered what he hoped for post-playing: to have the finance to build a five a-side pitch for him and friends to have a kick-about two or three times a week.
This was typical of a player who ranks among the finest centre-backs England has produced. Some elite footballers cannot wait to escape the sport once the boots are hung up but Ferdinand was never one of these. He walked away on Saturday, aged 36, after a single season at Queens Park Rangers that ended in relegation with his love for football still burning.
Tony Carr worked with Ferdinand as a young teenager at his first professional club, West Ham United. Now academy director there, Carr recalled: “The one thing that did strike me was his enthusiasm for the game. He just loved to play and that shone all the way through for me. Some of that is missing these days with players.”
Despite winning six Premier League titles, the Champions League, three League Cups, the Uefa Super Cup and the Fifa Club World Cup, Ferdinand could still be the starry-eyed kid from Peckham’s tough Friary Estate who believed becoming a professional footballer might be a pipedream.
When Ferdinand landed in Uganda to help his father, Julian, launch the country’s first football academy he was 28 and had just helped United claim a first Premier League title since 2003. Ferdinand was a key member of the Sir Alex Ferguson side that included Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney and he was widely viewed as one of the world’s best in his position. Yet the reception afforded on the 50km drive from Entebbe Airport to his hotel in Kampala – akin to one the Pope might receive – still took him by surprise.
The road was packed with families, motorcyclists, schoolchildren, workmen and fans blowing horns and waving as they chased Ferdinand’s 4x4 and threatened to overwhelm a police escort on the hour-long journey. In between “wows” and standing up in the roof of the 4x4 to wave, Ferdinand confessed to feeling “a bit stupid” at the reception. He was also fascinated by the global reach of football and United that was the catalyst for his recognition in the east African country and curious to know more about Uganda and its culture.
This interest in the world beyond the game helped keep Ferdinand fresh for the gruelling demands of performing for United and England, for whom he won 81 caps and was selected at four World Cups between 1998 and 2010.
Ferdinand’s various off-field projects take in his #5 magazine, the Rosso restaurants and his foundation.
There is also the almost-manic embracing of social media, his Twitter account featuring snippets of home life and off-kilter opinion as well as the more regulation output of the professional footballer.
This, though, was a player of exceptional talent, who Paul Scholes stated made operating in the United midfield “easy” and of whom Carr said: “Just talent. Pure talent. He could do most things. He has a good left foot, a good right foot. He could run, jump, create things. It was obvious from the word go that the boy had a lot of talent.
“Where that talent takes you at that age you don’t know but my first impression was that he was very talented and an all-round player.”
Ferdinand knew he could be “caned” for his public persona and career mishaps, which include the eight-month ban in 2004 for a missed drug test in September 2003. He also had to deal with the heartbreak of losing his wife, Rebecca, to cancer this month.
Yet in offering thanks for the condolences received Ferdinand noted how “refreshing” this was due to the tribal nature of football that can cause negativity.
His career, which also took in a loan spell at Bournemouth, two years at Leeds United and a record £30m transfer to Old Trafford, was a triumph of the very opposite: Ferdinand’s enduring positivity.
