Rio Ferdinand

Rio Ferdinand is a centre back, born on 7 November 1978 in a London suburb.

He began his career playing for Bloomfield Athletic youth team, where the young back trained before joining a new academy. He became a trainee of Eltham Town, where he didn’t spend a lot of time as well. In 1992 Rio drew the attention of West Ham scouts. After that, he had a demonstration game in the club and joined their youth system.

In 1996 Rio was offered to sign a professional contract and to become the first team player. After approving the contract the player was sent on loan to Bournemouth, where he performed during the season and improved his shape. In 1996/1997 Ferdinand made ten appearances for the temporary club.

In 1997, after his return from Bournemouth, Rio started to play actively as a regular for West Ham, taking part in the most important matches. His physical strength, skills and the outstanding vision of the game made Ferdinand the best back of the club, with 127 appearances and two goals.

In 2000 Rio was offered to transfer to Leeds that performed in the Premier League at the time. During two seasons, Rio played 54 games and netted two goals for the new club.

After two successful years in Leeds, Rio received an offer from Manchester United, the Premier League giant. Manchester United bosses were always ready to pay any price for footballers meeting high standards of the club. That was Rio’s case as the club paid 20 million pounds for his transfer. From 2002 Ferdinand officially became a regular, mostly making it to the starting eleven. Alex Ferguson, the everlasting club manager, entrusted Rio with the role of the key defender for over a decade and Rio performed at a very high level at that position. From 2002 up till 2014 Ferdinand made 455 appearances for the club and chipped in 8 goals.

In the summer 2014 the 35-year old Ferdinand was released from United and joined QPR as a free agent.

From 1996 till 2000, Rio played 12 games of the England national U-18 and U-21 squads. From 1997 to 2011 he was invited to the senior England team.