Rio Ferdinand--Five Star--The Biography (12 page)

‘These players are going to come through and it says a
lot about English football and the coaching that has been going on. It’s just a question of nurturing this talent at senior level and in Sven-Goran Eriksson we have a guy who has the credentials. He’s done it around the world but particularly in Italy, which is such a hot-bed.’

Rio knew only too well there were no guarantees of a full England place with the likes of Wes Brown, Gareth Southgate, Sol Campbell and Martin Keown around. But he was determined to push hard for selection. ‘I made a lot of mistakes when I was younger,’ he admitted. ‘They were well documented but I now think they were a blessing in disguise. I didn’t realise I was so much in the spotlight. I will make other mistakes but I have learned from the ones I have already made. People shell out a lot of money to see you play and you have got to behave in a responsible way. That was hard to grasp at first, but you eventually get there.’

In the middle of January 2001 Rio was struck down by one of the most bizarre injuries to befall any modern-day footballer – something which might cynically be called Couch Potato’s Knee. His new boss David O’Leary explained through gritted teeth: ‘It was a freak accident and typical of our season. It wasn’t even done on the training ground – Rio was watching TV with his foot up on the coffee table in the same position for several hours, and it strained a tendon behind his knee.’

This ludicrous injury sidelined Rio for the weekend’s 3–1 home defeat by Newcastle, but he was expected to return for the following Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie against Liverpool. For all Rio’s undoubted professionalism, there were occasions when he still seemed like a chilled-out kid from the slums of Peckham rather than an international multi-millionaire soccer star.

Rio’s first appearance in the Champions League was on 13 February at Elland Road against Anderlecht in the second stage. Leeds won 2–1 and a week later thrashed the Belgians 4–1 away. Rio was then called up for a starting place in England’s back four in the 3–0 friendly defeat of Spain. He looked strong and confident alongside Sol Campbell. England’s new boss Sven-Goran Eriksson seemed determined to give youth a chance, which was great news for Rio and the other up-and-coming young players.

Behind the scenes, Rio had been working hard at developing his game to that of a flat back four, which was very different from the approach at West Ham. By the time the Champions League quarter-finals began he seemed to have adjusted his game superbly. He was also handed the captain’s armband in the absence of regular skipper Lucas Radebe and relished the responsibility.

The emphatic 3–0 victory against Deportivo La Coruña in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League on 4 April looked certain to secure Leeds a highly unlikely place in the competition’s last four. But what made Rio’s day more than anything else was that he scored one of the goals. It was a classic. Irishman Ian Harte crowned an impressive evening with a classic assist when goalkeeper Valerón could only flick his sixty-fifth-minute corner into the path of Rio for his first-ever goal for Leeds and his first scored in nearly four years.

Leeds lost the quarter-final second leg 2–0 at Deportivo in front of a hostile 35,000 crowd and just scraped through to the semi-final 3–2 on aggregate. Uncharacteristically, Rio got himself booked for kicking the ball away in frustration in the twenty-third minute. This had followed a tussle with Fran as Leeds seemed to be crumbling under incredible pressure from the Spaniards.

Leeds hung on grimly during the last quarter of an hour as Deportivo battled in vain to score a third goal that would have equalled the aggregate score. No one was more astonished by their success than David O’Leary: ‘Frankly, I am amazed that we have reached the next stage of the competition. We knocked out a very good side and rode our luck tonight but it is about time we enjoyed a bit of good fortune after all we have endured this season. Now the adventure continues as we face Valencia. I wouldn’t have minded who we faced but I know they are an exceptional side who were only beaten by a world-class side in last year’s final.’

Leeds United’s latest dream continued, but how long would it last?

I
n
Only Fools and Horses,
Peckham’s most famous fictional hero, Del Boy, constantly accentuates the positive. ‘He who dares wins, Rodney. He who dares wins.’ So it seemed that Del Boy and Rio did have one thing in common besides hailing from Peckham. Del always dreamed of the day he’d make it big, and Rio was determined to be the best defender in Europe while still barely out of his teens.

Just as Del was renowned for an approach to life inspired by the famous SAS motto, Rio was singularly and similarly determined to fulfil his dreams. Such ambition in someone so young was quite startling for many of the older players he came across at Leeds. But there was no doubting his ambition.

Rio’s goal against Deportivo La Coruña, followed by one against his former club West Ham and then one against
Liverpool, brought his tally to three in five matches – all this for a player who hadn’t scored in years.

And Rio credited the Yorkshire countryside as one of his biggest inspirations. ‘Believe it or not, I really do love the countryside. I have my farmer’s outfit and everything! When we travelled north on the team coach with West Ham we never saw the best bits of places. When I got to Leeds I was pleasantly surprised by the outstanding beauty of the countryside. I am much more content these days sitting in my own house chilling out.

‘When we go out at Leeds it’s normally together as players for a quiet meal or something. You are much more under the microscope at a club like this and if you try to take liberties the manager gets to know about it very quickly. Mind you, when I first arrived I went into a corner shop in Wetherby, close to our training headquarters, and the woman behind the counter chatted away 19 to the dozen. I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. I had to ask her to slow down.

‘But it’s OK now. The people are blinding. There is only one club in the city. Everybody adores Leeds. The punters sometimes get in your face a bit but you have to expect that sort of thing. To be fair, it’s what I’ve wanted since I was a little kid, so I can’t complain, can I?’

Rio’s family and friends continued to pop up north to see him. The move to a quieter community seemed to have helped him to keep more level-headed. And his settled state of mind at Leeds was about to help turn him into an England regular. Rio appreciated the gentle art of persuasion practised by Sven-Goran Eriksson. Of the England squad’s new Swedish boss he said: ‘He’s clear and concise with his instructions on how he wants us to play.
The coach has created an atmosphere already in which no player can afford to assume he’s too good to be dropped. And I don’t see that situation changing. I’ve played for managers who shout a lot. Not this one. He’ll let you sit there and quieten down before he starts talking. Then he’ll tell you what he wants in a calm, composed manner.’

Back at Leeds, Rio still got a lot of stick for his vast salary. But he had a very logical answer for the critics: ‘I don’t think it’s really a money thing. It’s not our fault that football is the in-thing and people want to pay for it. If working at a bar or in Tesco’s was the in-thing, and people started investing in that and paying staff 10 grand a week, those people wouldn’t turn down that kind of money. In fact, it’s others who act different. Other people call me flash. How many people who got paid that money wouldn’t buy things that they liked? Not stupidly, but just a jumper. People just say you are flash because you’re a footballer.’

On the clothes front Rio continued to be obsessed with what he wore. Anything from Prada to YMC, but he was particularly fussy about shoes. ‘It takes me a long time to find a pair I really want.’

That Spring, England squeezed out a 2–1 victory over fellow World Cup group members Finland. Rio and Sol looked uncomfortable at the back, with Rio even going missing at the corner that resulted in Finland’s goal.

But despite this hiccup, Rio’s long list of admirers continued to grow. Latest member of the fan club was Big Ron himself – ex-manager turned TV pundit Ron Atkinson. In his column in the
Guardian
he heaped praise on the young defender. ‘There was a lot of talk when Rio Ferdinand went to Leeds that he could only play in a back
five. Few would doubt now that he has adapted his game to cope as one of two centre-halves. The biggest single difference is that he will be engaging people a lot more. In a three at West Ham, Rio was seldom marking. He had to worry about cleaning up at the back, making interceptions and picking up runners from midfield like Ray Parlour.

‘Now he will be more in contact with strikers, getting in more tackles and challenges and having to keep a really close eye on his opposite number. The change will have improved his concentration and his defensive qualities, not least in the air. I remember seeing him play for England against Switzerland and he didn’t seem to be able to come to terms with the heading bit. His work in challenging for the first ball has come to a lot.

‘Since slotting into a four Ferdinand has reduced the number of runs he makes out of defence. There’s nothing wrong with occasionally bursting forward, particularly if you have responsible players like David Batty who can sit in for him. But he knows he can’t do it willy-nilly. As the Leeds manager David O’Leary said on Saturday: “The three allows you to take more liberties, to take more chances.” In a four your first reaction has to be to make sure you get the ball.’

The build-up to the Champions League semi-final against Valencia was to prove a vital experience for Rio. David O’Leary was still haunted by the way he’d tasted defeat as a player against the same side 21 years earlier in the 1980 Cup Winners Cup Final. But the Irishman believed his young Leeds team could get to their first Champions League Final since 1975, when they lost 2–0 to Bayern Munich.

Valencia knew they would face a tough battle against the
Yorkshire club. Goalkeeper Santiago Canizares pointed out: ‘Leeds are looking very much like us. They place the emphasis on the unit rather than counting on great individuals. In addition they have tremendous desire and a determination. I recognise it because it was what we went through last season.’

But the truth was that Leeds had been the underdogs of the tournament since getting through the pre-qualifying rounds the previous summer. They also had to cope with a torrent of negative publicity generated by the approaching court case involving Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate.

The first-leg semi-final at Elland Road was played in light rain and Valencia controlled the first half, although Rio stood firm and gave an impressive performance. In the second half Leeds came close to scoring on a number of occasions, but a 0–0 draw on home soil meant all the odds were stacked against them for the return leg the following week.

In the return leg in Spain, Valencia proved too strong for Leeds as Juan Sánchez struck twice and Gaizka Mendieta fired a third to give them an emphatic 3–0 victory in front of a partisan crowd of 53,000. For Leeds, the misery was completed when teenage striker Alan Smith was sent off in the last minute for a tough challenge on the French World Cup winner Didier Deschamps. Defeat was a sad ending to Rio’s European adventure, but he and his Leeds teammates had done the team proud.

David O’Leary gracefully conceded that his side were beaten by a superior Valencia team: ‘I have no complaints over the result. Valencia were the better side. I now wish them all the best. They’re a fantastic side and I hope they go on and win the final. They deserve it.’ He was rightly proud of his team’s achievements and privately admitted
much of it was down to Rio’s superb performances as an all-round defender. ‘We’ve come a long way in three and a half years. It’s a sign of that when people say they’re disappointed we didn’t reach the final at our first attempt,’ he said after the game.

By mid-April Leeds were sixth in the Premiership table and couldn’t be caught by Rio’s old teammates at West Ham, 13 points adrift with four games to play. Leeds still had an outside chance of qualifying for the Champions League but needed other sides to slip up badly during the run-in to the end of the season. At least they’d avoided an Intertoto Cup nightmare by guaranteeing they could qualify for the UEFA Cup next season by finishing sixth.

Rio was then named in the Professional Footballers Association’s Premiership team of the year. He was Leeds United’s sole representative in the final 11. Arsenal and Man United led the rest with three players each.

During the summer of 2001 Rio regularly made it down to London to see some of his old Peckham mates, but he was well aware that footballers, or rather their fat pay packets, were a magnet for the sort of people he needed to avoid. He admitted: ‘I’ve been offered drugs when I’m out in bars, clubs and restaurants. There are always drugs about.’ But he never succumbed to temptation and to this day has never touched drugs in his life. However, fame and fortune were bringing other pressures. ‘I struggle with the loss of privacy. I can’t go out to a restaurant and come out of myself even a little bit. I can have a laugh, but I’ve got to keep it to a minimum. If I get rowdy – and everyone does sometimes – it’s going to be highlighted.’

Rio had grown wary of women and their motives for
being nice to him. ‘I really don’t like talking about it because it makes me sound big-headed, but I do get a lot of women throwing themselves at me – asking me to sign across their chests and lifting up their skirts for an autograph. Of course it’s an ego-boost. Even if the girl isn’t that good-looking, I take it as a huge compliment. If she’s good-looking, that’s a bonus. But I’ve got to watch who I mix with. I usually get a vibe if a girl’s interested in me or my money. But it takes a long time to trust someone.’

Then Rio had a night out at that popular watering-hole the Epping Forest Country Club and met an attractive brunette called Rebecca Ellison. She was softly spoken and made no attempt to flash her eyelids at Rio, but he was hooked from the moment he first caught sight of her. This time, thought Rio, I’m going to take it one step at a time.

During the summer of 2001 he courted Rebecca in an old-fashioned manner until he felt confident that she was genuinely interested in him. Then he persuaded her to stay at his house in Wetherby. Rebecca wasn’t interested in going out clubbing and Rio liked that. He always responded better when the women he met were happy to stay out of the limelight.

Within two months of meeting, Rebecca was virtually living with Rio at his house in Yorkshire. But, during visits to his old south London haunts, Rebecca was rarely seen out on his arm. One of his oldest pals, Leon Simms, explained: ‘We only see Rio down here on his own, man. That’s the way he likes to keep it.’

Rio’s other big love affair continued to be clothes. ‘My mum goes mad when I come home with all my bags. I do the whole works. I love Prada and they know my face well in Gucci.’ He had never forgotten the way they treated him when he used to wander into those designer shops on Bond
Street when he was a youngster. But Rio still shopped at those same exclusive stores. ‘I can’t help it,’ he confessed, laughing. ‘But when I first went back there, I let them know what had happened. They were hugely apologetic. They said: “Sorry, we didn’t know.”’

Down in south London, Rio’s elderly granny, Angelina Ferdinand, spoke to a newspaper about how disappointed she was that Rio hadn’t been to see her in years. ‘I was always close to Rio’s father Julian and I thought this might bring Rio and I closer. But now I don’t see either of them and it breaks my heart. But then Rio is a superstar footballer and it must take up all his time. Rio has never given me any money because I don’t want any. All he has ever given me is a football shirt when he got signed to West Ham, which I was really pleased with. I just wish he had a spare moment to spend some time with me. Rio’s laughter used to fill this house and now all I have are memories. I feel I don’t know him any more – I don’t know him any better than the football fans who watch him on TV.’

Rio’s career had received the double boost of a highly publicised run in the Champions League plus confirmation from Sven-Goran Eriksson that he saw him as a regular team member. And by the summer of 2001 Rio knew more or less for certain that his seat was booked for the 2002 World Cup Finals in Korea and Japan if England managed to qualify. He even visited the land of the rising sun as part of a goodwill tour, one year ahead of the tournament, accompanied by his mum Janice and Leeds teammate Alan Smith. In his new-found role as ambassador for English football, Rio was given a grand tour of Japan – from karaoke bars to World Cup stadia. His trip was sponsored partly by
the Italian clothing firm Verri and he was thrilled when he was taken to visit a geisha house. Rio loved Japan.

Initially this unlikely threesome didn’t know how to handle the country’s ancient costumes and traditions. Rio recalled: ‘At first we didn’t know what was happening but then the old Mama started playing the guitar and singing songs and they started doing some traditional dancing and it was like being in an East End boozer!’

Naturally, Rio and Smith enjoyed a night out singing with the locals at a karaoke bar. ‘If Sony had been there they would have signed me up on the spot,’ Rio said later. ‘I was banging out Bobby Brown like you wouldn’t believe!’ Rio’s trip to Japan also highlighted the problems back home with the recently closed Wembley stadium. ‘How can the Japanese knock up five unbelievable stadiums in no time and we can’t even manage one?’

And Rio let slip on the tour of Japan that he secretly harboured ambitions to captain England. ‘At the moment David Beckham is captain of England and he’s doing a great job. But I must admit it’s every player’s dream to captain his country and I’m no different.’

Typical Rio: always thinking ahead to the next stage of his career.