| England sweatshirt England team player profile - Rio Ferdinand Rio Gavin Ferdinand, better known as Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United and England footballer, was born on 7th November 1978 in Peckham, London. At age 12, while attending the Blackheath Bluecoat school, Rio Ferdinand joined the Queens Park Rangers youth side where he remained for three years until 1993, when he signed for the West Ham United schoolboys. His success at youth team level led to a professional contract and a natural transition to the senior West Ham squad, and, on 5th May 1996 Rio Ferdinand made his senior debut as a substitute against Sheffield Wednesday. Towards the end of 1997 he won his first England cap in a friendly match against Cameroon, he came on as a substitute and in doing so became the youngest defender to play for England. Rio Ferdinand enjoyed a successful start to his football career at West Ham United where he played until November 2000. His achievements at the club led to him becoming the world's most expensive defender when he was transferred to Leeds United for £18 million. Rio Ferdinand spent two years at Leeds United, where he became club Captain in 2001, before Manchester United showed a keen interest in him. The deal that Manchester United struck, believed to be somewhere around £30 million, meant that once again Rio Ferdinand found himself inadvertently breaking the transfer record for a defender. He enjoyed a great start with Manchester United when in his first season with them they won the premiership title, his first goal for the team came in a 4-0 win against Wigan Athletic in December 2005. While Rio Ferdinand has given much of his time to good causes off the pitch his career has also not been without some controversy. His most costly mistake came in 2003 when he unintentionally missed a routine drugs test for which he received a hefty eight month ban. The ban imposed on Rio Ferdinand took effect from January 2004 and meant that he not only missed the end of Manchester United's 2003/04 and the start of their 2005/06 seasons but he also had to sit out England's Euro 2004 European Championship campaign. Despite this Rio Ferdinand did play in the Korea/Japan 2002 and Germany 2006 World Cups and captained the England team in March 2008 as part of Fabio Capello's rotation system. In 2008 Rio Ferdinand also captained Manchester United to double success in both the Premier League and UEFA Champions League.
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