Rio Ferdinand - International Career

International Career

At the age of 19 years and 8 days, Ferdinand earned his first full England cap as a substitute in a friendly against Cameroon on 15 November 1997, making him the youngest defender to play for England at the time (a record broken in 2006 by Micah Richards). Ferdinand would have made an even earlier debut in September had he not been charged with drink-driving in the build up to England's 1998 World Cup qualifier against Moldova. Ferdinand was named in the squad for this game and was a likely starter; however, the public mourning for Princess Diana – whose chauffeur had been suspected of drink-driving – left Glenn Hoddle with little choice but to drop the talented teenager from the squad. After an impressive 1997–98 season he was selected for the 1998 World Cup squad as a back-up defender. However, he was not selected in Kevin Keegan's 22-man squad for the 2000 European Championships

After his £18m move to Leeds United, Ferdinand was handed a start by caretaker manager Peter Taylor in a friendly match against Italy and quickly established himself as a first-choice player under Sven-Göran Eriksson. He was selected as one of England's two first-choice centre-backs at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, wearing the number 5 shirt. John Terry (who he would later partner for many years in central defence) replaced Ferdinand in the England side throughout his eight month ban until his return on 9 October 2004 in their World Cup qualifier against Wales. Ferdinand has played ten World Cup matches for England, he was substituted before Henrik Larsson scored for Sweden in the 2006 World Cup).

The Duran Duran song "Rio" has been used in football chants both for and against Ferdinand; in fact, in 2002, fan Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran's lead singer) promised to re-record one of the football chants if the team won. However, the team failed to win and the promise never had the chance to come to fruition.

Ferdinand has scored three goals for England, the first in the 2002 World Cup second round match against Denmark (although some sources credit this goal as a Thomas Sørensen own goal). The second was a near post strike that beat the Russian goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev in England's Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia on 12 September 2007 at Wembley Stadium. The third on 11 October 2008 in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match at home to Kazakhstan. England won 5–1.

On 25 March 2008 it was announced that Rio would wear the captain's armband for Fabio Capello's second game in charge of the national team, ahead of John Terry, Steven Gerrard or David Beckham, who some believed would be named captain to mark his 100th cap for his country. An FA statement suggested that the decision to name Ferdinand as captain was part of Capello's plans of rotating the captaincy before naming an official captain for September's World Cup qualifiers. On 19 August, however, Ferdinand lost out to Terry in retaining the captain's armband but was named vice captain by Fabio Capello.

On 11 October 2008 Rio scored the opening goal in England's 5–1 win over Kazakhstan, a back-post header in the 52nd minute. He was also named as captain for this game.

A blunder in the match between England and Ukraine in Dnipro on 10 October 2009 which led to the sending off of Robert Green led some to question his inclusion in the squad. A lack of match practice for his club and a series of errors such as he suffered in his early days as a footballer have led to criticism of his inclusion from several corners.

On 5 February 2010, Ferdinand replaced John Terry as captain of England.

As of June 2010, he has 78 England caps to his name, placing him level with Ashley Cole and one short of (now retired) John Barnes among the most capped black players to have appeared for the England team. Although Ferdinand has been named in the last four England World Cup squads (albeit without playing in 1998), he has never been to a European Championship due to a ban for missing a drugs test and due to England's failure to qualify for UEFA Euro 2008. Although back and groin injury problems forced him to miss much of the 2009–10 domestic season, Ferdinand was selected to captain England at the 2010 World Cup. However, he suffered a knee ligament injury during the team's first training session in South Africa on 4 June and was subsequently ruled out of the tournament. On 19 March 2011, ahead of England's Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales, manager Fabio Capello announced that John Terry was re-instated as permanent England captain and that Ferdinand would return to his role of vice-captain.

Ferdinand was left out of Roy Hodgson's squad for Euro 2012, leading to strong speculation this was to avoid potential conflict with John Terry, who was included in the squad, due to Terry's upcoming trial for racially abusing Ferdinand's brother Anton. Further controversy arose when after Gary Cahill was ruled out of the tournament 22-year-old Martin Kelly with just two minutes of international football was called-up as a replacement instead of Ferdinand. This lead to Ferdinand's representative Jamie Moralee accusing Hodgson of showing a "lack of respect".

On 3 October 2012 The Daily Mirror reported that Roy Hodgson had revealed to fellow passengers on the London Underground that Ferdinand would no longer be considered for England duty, despite the retirement of John Terry. Hodgson later apologised for these comments and denied that he was ruling Ferdinand out of playing for England again.