The Ferdinand Brothers: The Impossible Task That Faced Anton Ferdinand
G'day Hive! Today is my fifth and final post in a row about brothers in football. It's been a fun series to write and one that caught me by surprise. Initially I was only going to write about the Boateng Brothers , Kevin-Prince and Jerome. It developed into a fascination about how siblings can become professional footballers.
When you consider 90% of youngsters who play for professional academies never make it professionally, only then can you truly grasp just how big a deal it is.
I've written about the | Boateng Brothers | Alcantara Brothers | Neville Brothers | Toure Brothers and today, I'll be writing about the Ferdinand brothers.
Born to an Irish mother and St. Lucian father, Anton and Rio Ferdinand both showed considerable potential as youngsters. QPR had invited a 10 year old Rio to train with the club and in 1992, West Ham signed a 14 year old Rio on a youth contract. A few years later his brother Anton would join the Hammers academy as a 9 year old.
Rio, six years Anton's senior, started his footballing journey as an attacking midfielder but shifted to centre-back as his coaches realised his physical potential. He would go on to become one of the greatest English players of all-time.
In 1995 Rio signed his first professional contract with West Ham. He soon became a fan favourite and attracted interest across the country. Leeds United broke the British transfer fee record to sign him for £18 million in 2000, the highest ever fee for a defender at the time.
Ferdinand became an important part of the Leeds team that made the Champions League semi-finals in 2001 and after an impressive 2002 World Cup for England, Leeds sold Ferdinand to Manchester United for over £29m, again smashing the British transfer record and transfer fee for a defender.
In his first season for the club, Rio had accomplished a dream by winning the 2002-03 Premier League title. Anton Ferdinand now had the unenviable and impossible task of following in his older brothers footsteps. As a central defender himself, he was always going to draw comparisons to Rio, who lined up for the Three Lions as a starting player at the age of 19 years old.
The bar was set impossibly high for Anton. Rio went on to have a glamorous career making 504 total appearances in the Premier League, keeping 189 clean sheets and winning an astonishing six titles with Manchester United.
Anton himself made a respectable 218 appearances and 47 clean sheets but despite a promising England under-21 career he was never capped at senior level for England. Rio by comparison was capped 81 times for the Three Lions and is considered one of the greatest centre-backs for England, Manchester United and in Premier League history.
Rio Ferdinand won six Premier League titles at Old Trafford and is considered one of the best ever centre-backs ever for the club.
Source: Photo by Steve Collis shared under Creative Commons (CC) license.
One thing they do however share in terms of record is that they both have won the Premier League Player of the Month award once - Rio in October 2001 and Anton in January 2006.
Anton Ferdinand played 138 league games for West Ham and would leave after five seasons at the club. Three seasons followed at Sunderland which were rather unsuccessful before joining QPR for two seasons.
Anton would play for QPR from 2011 and in his first season with the club in a game against Chelsea, Anton was the victim of a racial abuse incident with England and Chelsea captain John Terry. Terry was acquitted in a criminal court but the FA charged him and banned him for four games with a £220,000 fine.
In 2013 Anton would leave QPR, Rio joining a year later and ultimately retiring following QPRs relegation from the Premier League after his only season with the club.
Anton continued his career and became something of a journeyman, playing in the Championship, League One, a stint in Turkey and closing out his career in Scotland.
Unfortunately for Anton he'll always be seen as "Rio's brother" in many peoples eyes. He's had a successful Premier League career himself but it's impossible no to compare him with his brother Rio, who both play the same position.
I can't help but think how good the Ferdinand brothers may have been if they played side by side...
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Wolfgang Sport started in 2017 as a way to connect my passion for American and British sports. Today it's evolved into a blockchain sports blog pushing the boundaries into the crypto world and embracing Web3 technologies.
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
Insightful!
I never knew Ferdinand had a brother that was a professional footballer too. Families who have brothers emerging as top footballers must be really excited. It's not a very common thing to see brothers rise to stardom in the world of football. So, the few available ones are worth recognizing.
I think Anton suffered from the comparison, he wasn't a bad defender unless you compare him to his brother as expectations become high then.
Absolutely... Rio set the bar so high and with his record fee and game played coupled with the trophies won. Most people see Anton as Rio's brother and anytime I see him on the ball, I see Rio and judge him based on that. Not fair on him but he should be judged based on his kind of player, not his brother. I was guilty of that too. He was a decent player too.
Who is Anton? Hehe, that's how it seemed.
Nice article again, friend.
👍👍
It seems I know a little about EPL local player.Huh ha!! I read the previous posts of the brother soccer series, and it is really good that you mentioned the true story with some stats and data.
Reblogged!! 💯
Congratulations!
✅ Good job. Your post has been appreciated and has received support from CHESS BROTHERS ♔ 💪
♟ We invite you to use our hashtag #chessbrothers and learn more about us.
♟♟ You can also reach us on our Discord server and promote your posts there.
♟♟♟ Consider joining our curation trail so we work as a team and you get rewards automatically.
♞♟ Check out our @chessbrotherspro account to learn about the curation process carried out daily by our team.
Kindly
The CHESS BROTHERS team
Nice series , honestly ! You really killed it !! Looking forward to what you’ll be dishing out next . Best Regards!!