FOOTBALL CAN BE cruel in the way it discards the greats. At a time of personal tragedy, Rio Ferdinand’s sporting fortunes are altogether less important.
But a titan has been denied the appropriate farewells in a sequence of luckless endings.
Ferdinand spent Saturday at Wembley, but as a pundit, not a participant. He had announced his retirement hours earlier. He spent the match in the press box, sat next to his long-time colleague Paul Scholes, occasionally being interrupted by selfie-hunters as both tried to concentrate on the FA Cup final.
He last took the field in earnest in March. Queens Park Rangers lost that day, just as they did in six of his final seven games. He only tasted victory twice – against Sunderland on both occasions – in his valedictory year.
By the time he had said he would not play on, Ferdinand had been released and QPR relegated. It was an ignominious conclusion to a stellar career.
Twelve months earlier, he left Manchester United after their worst season in a quarter of a century, told by executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward his contract would not be renewed in the dressing room after the final game at Southampton in May 2014. Once again, he had deserved better. Twelve years of service brought 455 games and 19 trophies. He scaled the heights, making the contrast with his recent lows all the sadder.
He was the prodigy who matured into the pedigree performer, the teenage talent whose enviable blend of physical power, technical prowess and preternatural composure marked him out at an early age as probably England’s most naturally gifted centre-half since Bobby Moore.
Ferdinand was the most prized graduate of West Ham’s prolific academy and, for the first of the three Uniteds he represented, the most profitable. He was the centre-back who commanded prices normally reserved for centre-forwards.
He was twice the world’s most expensive defender. Leeds United spent £18 million on Ferdinand, before Manchester United made him the costliest player in his position in footballing history at £30m. Even now, 13 years on and when United are ever more accustomed to paying sizeable sums, the record price they have paid for a centre-back remains the fee banked by Leeds in 2002.
But Sir Alex Ferguson, who Ferdinand singled out for special praise when he looked back on his career, was vindicated. Not initially, because his first few seasons at Old Trafford were mixed. Ferdinand was guilty of lapses of concentration, whether on the field or when told to take a drugs test. That omission came at considerable cost. Lesser talents were more accustomed to focusing.
It took the arrival of Nemanja Vidic for Ferdinand to realise his potential. They became a 21st-century version of Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister; a blend of steel and silk but after the globalisation of the Premier League had brought an upgrade in personnel.
Both could defend one-on-one against almost anyone; as a result, they enabled United to play such an attacking brand of football. There were times when Ferdinand would glide forward with the ball, his ability seemingly too abundant to be confined to his own half, but he made the transition from footballing defender to stopper.
From 2006 to 2010, he and Vidic were the best central defensive partnership in club football. Over four years, United only conceded 101 goals in 152 Premier League games and reached the last four of the Champions League three times and its showpiece twice. They would line up together in the final again in 2011, but fell short to a superior Barcelona.
Ferdinand, who had captained a Leeds team to the Champions League semi-finals, led the Manchester United side that won the 2008 final. Few have led different clubs so far on the continent, even though Ferguson eventually preferred to give Vidic the United armband.
Perhaps it was another way of keeping the more lackadaisical Ferdinand on his toes but, at his peak, the bigger games tended to bring the best from him.
He was terrific in two World Cups, which is not something many of England’s so-called Golden Generation could say. He was unused in a third, in 1998, and due to captain his country in a fourth, until injury prevented his participation in 2010.
Injuries became a constant in his thirties. The signs of decline were apparent as a Rolls Royce of a defender needed to spend ever more time in the garage for repairs. He could no longer accelerate smoothly past everyone else.
Some of the defining fixtures – Manchester derbies in particular – became ordeals. Others saw Ferdinand defy the ageing process. After he was embarrassed by Gareth Bale in September 2012, it was testament to his character that he responded so well that he was named in the PFA Team of the Year for a sixth time, a statistic that illustrated his enduring class.
In an otherwise forgettable final year at Old Trafford and before David Moyes omitted him for the second leg, his last outstanding performance came against Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich.
It was like old times: Ferdinand and Vidic, with a combined age approaching 70, twinned in defiance again. The Englishman never played that well again. But if that would have made a more suitable goodbye, it was fitting he had the Serb by his side when he last excelled.
- Rich Jolly
