Photo: Web Summit / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Rio Ferdinand is, to me, the thinking man's centre-back. At 189 cm he anchored Manchester United's defence and played in three World Cup squads for England, but what I admired was never brute force; it was the reading of the game and the calm positioning that let him neutralise attacks before they began. His Hall of Fame inductions are deserved, yet the stats undersell him. Since retiring he has written, produced film, and become one of the sharper television pundits around, proving he can compete with words as well as he once did with his feet. That composure, on and off the pitch, is what I respect.
Overview
Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and was a television pundit for TNT Sports, for ten years. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and was a member of three FIFA World Cup squads.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Rio Ferdinand
- Name (Japanese)
- リオ・ファーディナンド
- Reading
- りお・ふぁーでぃなんど
- Born
- November 7, 1978 (age 47)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Scorpio / Horse
- Origin
- Camberwell, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 189 cm
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- association football player / autobiographer / film producer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- English Football Hall of Fame
- 2023 Premier League Hall of Fame
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Association football player — see all → · Autobiographer — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.