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Rio Ferdinand’s appointment as England captain completes a long road to redemption for the player who once represented much that was wrong with the modern game.
“I knew I had to change the opinions people had of me,” the 31-year-old Ferdinand said recently. “I think I’ve done that.”
In a turbulent start to Ferdinand’s career, he was exposed in newspapers for featuring on a sex tape with teammates, banned for drink-driving, and suspended from football for eight months for forgetting to attend a drugs test.
That ban ruled Ferdinand out of the 2004 European Championship. But six years on, the Manchester United defender is tasked with leading England at the World Cup in June after John Terry was sacked on Friday due to his own sex scandal.
“I’m not ashamed to say I made mistakes as I grew up,” Ferdinand said recently.
“I might make mistakes again in the future – but ones as costly as those in the past? I hope not. As a kid from West Ham, it’s taken me some years to grow up enough to realise the responsibility that goes with being a professional footballer.
“I think I’ve grasped that now. Maturity is part of it. I’ve got a young family. I think everyone goes through ups and downs in their careers, and their lives. It’s how you come out of it that matters.”
Ferdinand survived growing up in the violent and deprived London suburb of Peckham, went through the youth system at West Ham, and made his full football debut in 1996.
The centre back’s form saw him become the youngest defender to play for England in 1997 before making the 1998 World Cup squad. But he did not play in France and missed out on a place in Kevin Keegan’s Euro 2000 squad.
Leaving West Ham for Leeds in 2000 and the glitzy London nightlife helped him concentrate on football, but didn’t prevent him making headlines for the wrong reasons.
A record British fee brought the defender to Man United from Leeds in 2002, but the following year he received the Football Association ban for “the failure or refusal by a player to submit to drug testing.”
Ferdinand has reinvented himself, focusing on charitable work and being entrusted with the captain’s armband both at United and first at England during manager Fabio Capello’s drawn-out audition for the role in 2008, which Terry won.
“Being captain has had a big impact. I think people will think that the two managers of club and country would not make me captain if they didn’t trust me or if they didn’t think I’m responsible enough for it,” Ferdinand has said.
“That in turn leads people into believing that I am a reformed character.”
Under the new tough regime introduced by Capello in 2008, it’s unlikely England’s World Cup preparations will feature a repeat of four years ago.
Then, Ferdinand lived up to his reputation as a prankster by presenting a TV series, Rio’s World Cup Windups, that duped England teammates, including an attempt to kidnap then-captain David Beckham.
Now Ferdinand is more likely to spend his time interviewing fellow sports stars like Usain Bolt for his digital magazine or raising money to build youth centers in deprived areas through his Live The Dream Foundation.
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