Missing a drugs test cost Rio Ferdinand his place at Euro 2004, while taking one two years earlier provides all the motivation he needs to reclaim his standing among football’s elite at the forthcoming World Cup. In Japan four years ago, Ferdinand and Sol Campbell were acclaimed as the tournament’s top two centre-halves.
Manchester United’s £30m man admits he has dipped below those peerless standards recently, but believes he can again find the form that made him the most coveted defender in the game when England travel to Germany next month.
That casual air that frustrates managers and fans alike masks what lies beneath an insouciant exterior. Ferdinand is every bit as driven as John Terry, his more demonstrative centre-back partner, and approaches his third World Cup with two career-defining goals: first, to attain the exalted status enjoyed by Sir Alf Ramsey’s immortals, and, second, to beat Brazil en route and punish them for their smugness in 2002.
Approaching the peak of his powers at 27, Ferdinand was in relaxed, expansive mood at the Vale do Lobo complex in Portugal, where the squad and their wives and girlfriends had six days of R and R before flying home to begin their proper preparations. He expounded on a broad range of subjects, from Steven Gerrard’s performance in the FA Cup final (“it was an inspiration to us all”) to the day last October when he was dropped by England (“devastating”) and his “ideal scenario” in July (beating Brazil in the final).
The fateful hour was fast approaching. “This has definitely focused the mind,” he said. “Beforehand, everybody was talking about the World Cup, but it’s not until you get together with the rest of the lads with your training kit on that it hits home how the biggest tournament of the lot is just around the corner.” The senior players had an appointment with destiny. “I want to be part of something that will go down in history,” Ferdinand said. “If we’re successful in this tournament, our names will be set in stone for ever more. I want some of the treatment the 1966 team get now, some of that esteem they’re held in. They’ve got that medal and what they’ve done is there for life — for ever. They can say, ‘I’ve won the World Cup’. We can’t, so we have to look up to them when I’d much rather be up there alongside them.”
The class of 2006 knew they would never have a better chance to live their dreams. “We’re a better team than we were four years ago, and the players, individually, are more confident,” Ferdinand said. “We’ve got a lot who are in their prime. We’re more experienced than we were last time. Four years ago, when we played Brazil, we felt a bit inferior subconsciously, whereas now we can go on to the pitch against any team in the world and genuinely believe we’re good enough to win.”
Shizuoka, and the quarterfinal England lost after leading the Brazilians, was a bitter memory. “If we’d got to half-time 1-0 up we’d have won the game. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do that. They were a great team. Rivaldo was unbelievable that day and Ronaldinho made a name for himself with that goal. But we should have won. We were a bit naive, a bit gung-ho. We scored our goal, thought we could get more and blew ourselves out, and in the second half, when we needed to chase the game, we couldn’t because we were knackered,” the defender said.
For the only time in his career, Ferdinand made the mistake of playing the occasion, not just the opposition.
“It was the only time I’ve ever had butterflies,” he said. “Before the kick-off I saw my family and friends in the stand, as if it was in glaring close-up, and the occasion got to me. I started taking in the whole event, which it’s better for me not to do. The time to do that is at the end of your career, or maybe after the game. This was before the kick-off, which was wrong. I never look for family and friends now.”
It was no excuse for what happened 15 months later, but his experience after the match put him off drugs tests for life. “I had to sit there with Cafu and Ronaldinho, waiting to pee,” he said. “They were sitting there with this ‘We won’ expression — imagine how I felt. It wasn’t nice. Maybe they weren’t being smug, but it felt like that. I was there for half an hour, but it felt like a couple of days. I kept saying to Ronaldinho, ‘Did you mean that goal or what?’ He just shrugged.”
It was time to move on, to atone. “It would be the ideal scenario to beat Brazil in the final,” Ferdinand said. “We are going to have to beat them to win this World Cup. I see them as our main rivals. I also think Germany, as hosts, will do well. At Euro 96, England being the home team was almost like having an extra player. As an outside bet, I’d go for the Ivory Coast to cause a few upsets. They’ve got a solid team — more than outstanding individuals.”
And England? “In today’s football, organised teams do well because the class gap has narrowed. Greece showed that when they won Euro 2004. Chelsea are another example — they’ve proved what can be achieved by being a vigorous, strong unit. We can be that. We’ve got players who are accustomed to doing it in big games. That should stand us in good stead.”
As ever, England expects. “It’s a long time since 1966, and the expectation just seems to get greater, but that doesn’t bother me,” Ferdinand said. “Any player who goes out there wearing an England kit puts himself under pressure. Yes, the external pressure is there, but the internal one is greater. I can’t speak for the others, but in my case it’s enormous because I know what this team is capable of, and if we don’t play up to those capabilities, we’re all going to be so terribly disappointed.”
