BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Leslie "Les" Ferdinand MBE (born 8 December 1966[1] in Paddington, London) is a former English footballer. His playing career included spells at Queens Park Rangers, Beşiktaş, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers, during which period he earned a number of appearances for England. He became the first player to score for six different Premier League clubs.
He is the cousin of players, brothers Rio and Anton Ferdinand, and Peterborough United player, Kane Ferdinand.[2] His son Aaron currently plays for Harrow Borough in the Isthmian League. Popularly nicknamed Sir Les, he was made an MBE in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours.[3]
On 5 November 2008 Ferdinand joined fellow ex-Spur Tim Sherwood on the coaching staff of Tottenham Hotspur, utilising his experience to work with the strikers.
Ferdinand is the eighth highest scorer in the Premier League with 149 goals.
Club career
Early career
Ferdinand started his career in non-league football, first at AEL (a KOPA Cypriot team in England) then to Southall then moving to Hayes. He was spotted by Queens Park Rangers and moved there for £30,000.
Queens Park Rangers
Ferdinand made his QPR debut on 20 April 1987, aged 20, as a substitute in the 4-0 league defeat by Coventry City at Highfield Road - the first of two league appearances that season. He played a further league game in 1987–88, and had a three-game loan spell at Third Division Brentford.
In 1988, he was loaned to Turkish side Beşiktaş for a season, and performed well with 14 goals in 24 games.
He was back in the QPR side for the 1989-90 season, but managed just nine First Division appearances as well as his first two English league goals. He fared better in 1990–91, managing 18 league games and scoring eight goals as QPR secured a familiar mid table finish. His 10 goals from 23 games in 1991–92 helped ensure QPR's status as founder members of the new FA Premier League for the 1992-93 season, and it was during this campaign that he established himself as a top striker, scoring 20 goals in 37 games as QPR finished fifth - the highest placed of all theLondon sides.
His fine form continued into 1993–94, during which his 16 goals from 36 games helped QPR finish ninth. Despite mounting speculation of a move to either Manchester United or Arsenal, he signed a two-year contract with QPR that summer.[7]
He enjoyed arguably his best season yet in 1994–95, as he was on target 24 times in the Premier League and speculation grew that he would soon be on his way to a bigger club.
In nearly a decade at Loftus Road, he played under four different managers - Jim Smith, Trevor Francis, Don Howe and Gerry Francis.
Newcastle United[edit]
Ferdinand was sold to Newcastle in 1995 for £6 million, with Hayes receiving £600,000 due to a sell-on clause agreed following his move to QPR (with the money received Hayes built a function suite and named it "The Ferdinand Suite" in his honour). It was a tidy profit for a player who had cost them a mere £5,000.
His arrival at the club came nearly three years after the Magpies had offered QPR £3.3million for him during their Division One promotion season - but the offer had been turned down.[8]
The spell on Tyneside was arguably Ferdinand's most successful club tenure. He scored 29 goals in his first season with Newcastle, and significantly contributed to the side's getting within touching distance of the Premiership title in the 1995–96 season. Newcastle led the league by 12 points at one stage, but were overhauled by Manchester United in the final three months of the season.
In both of his seasons on Tyneside, Ferdinand collected runners-up medals in the Premier League. In the second season, they contested a four-horse race with Manchester United, Arsenal andLiverpool before Manchester United won the title.
Ferdinand scored 50 goals in only 84 games at Newcastle, forming a successful partnership with Alan Shearer. He was and indeed is still very highly thought of by Newcastle United.
Ferdinand received a standing ovation when he returned to St. James' Park as a Tottenham player, trying to put Alan Shearer's number 9 shirt on to complete a lap of honour, he broke down in tears and could only manage to put the shirt on inside out and back to front before being helped from the field. Ferdinand returned again, when he also received a standing ovation, coming on as a substitute at Alan Shearer's testimonial and subsequently scored.
Tottenham Hotspur
In 1997 Ferdinand was bought by Tottenham Hotspur, the club he supported as a boy, again for £6 million. Injuries heavily disrupted his first season at the club, but towards the end of the campaign he formed a good partnership with Jürgen Klinsmann, and the pair's goals saved Spurs from relegation from the Premiership. Ferdinand helped Spurs win the League Cup in 1999, defeating Leicester City 1–0 in the final at Wembley, but injuries restricted him to just 12 goals in his first three seasons at the club.
He scored 10 goals in the 2000–01 season and 15 in 2001–02. He played in a second League Cup final for the club, against Blackburn Rovers, but was thwarted by three saves by Rovers' goalkeeper Brad Friedel as Spurs lost 2–1. Ferdinand scored the 10,000th goal in Premiership history on 15 December 2001 for Spurs against Fulham.
Later career
In January 2003, he moved to West Ham United, and scored his first goal for the club against former club Tottenham,[9] but was unable to prevent the club's relegation from the Premier League and opted to remain in the top flight by signing for newly promoted Leicester City on a free transfer. While at Leicester Ferdinand scored 14 Premiership goals, despite being 37 years old. After the Foxes were relegated at the end of that season, he rejected a new contract and joined Bolton Wanderers.[10]
Ferdinand memorably scored for Bolton Wanderers against rivals Manchester United in the last minute, despite playing from a centre back position, which looked to have given the Wanderers the win, but a goal from David Bellion even deeper in injury time gave United a point.[11] This goal, his last in the Premier League, came three months before his 38th birthday.[12]
He found opportunities from the start limited, but proved useful for all his experience when coming off the substitutes` bench, and scored against former club Tottenham in the League Cup, with what proved to be a mere consolation goal in a 4-3 thriller which Bolton lost.[13] He left them on 2 January 2005. Four days later, he signed with Reading. His contract at the club lasted until the end of the 2004–05 season. He scored one league goal in his time at Reading, in a 2-1 loss to Coventry.[14]
Ferdinand committed to non-contract terms with Watford during the 2005–06, but did not play a competitive game for the club and left after their promotion to the Premier League via the Football League Championship playoffs. He retired from football a few months short of his 40th birthday.
International career
Ferdinand made his England debut in February 1993 against San Marino, scoring the final goal in a 6–0 victory at Wembley.
For England, Ferdinand was capped 17 times,[3] scoring five goals. He was part of the Euro 96 and 1998 FIFA World Cup squads.[3] Despite his successful season with Newcastle he did not play a game in 1996, and an injury meant he did not play a match in 1998.
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