Ferdinand is more than the 'bling'

By Rob Harris

Rio Ferdinand's defensive duties have extended beyond the pitch on his long road to redemption.

The Manchester United center back hopes that journey - from big spending, sexually foolhardy and contract mercenary to captain for club and country, and social campaigner - will be completed with the European Cup in his hands on Wednesday night.

"I knew when I signed my last contract (in 2005) that I had to change the opinions people had of me," the 29-year-old Ferdinand said. "The proof of the pudding's in the eating and I think I've done that.

"It would be a tremendous honour to lead the team out and it would be more of an honour to lift the trophy at the end."

While preparing to meet Chelsea in Moscow, the Englishman has been setting the record straight over a turbulent - and, he says, misunderstood - career that has provided fodder for detractors of the affluent modern game.

A record British fee brought the defender to Old Trafford from Leeds in 2002, but the following year he was banned for eight months after missing a drugs test. He continued to receive his whopper salary while on the sidelines, but after stalling on a new contract in 2005 and meeting Chelsea's chief executive, fans vented their fury.

"The worst time was being booed by my own supporters," he reflected at United's training ground before jetting to Russia. "Circumstances were not great at the time there was the incident when me and my agent were in the same restaurant as Peter Kenyon. In hindsight it could have been avoided but you live and learn.

"I was always going to sign for Manchester United and I have done."

The latest contract agreed last week keeps him at Old Trafford until 2013.

It was penned six months after being castigated for organising an alcohol-fuelled all-day Christmas party - packed with young women enticed from across Britain - which generated a string of lurid headlines. One player was accused of rape after the December festivities and shipped out on loan before being cleared.

The midseason celebration threatened to destabilise United's title defense and setback Ferdinand's transformation into a clean-cut father.

"People chose me as the person who (organised) it and you just have to accept being scapegoated at times," said Ferdinand, fresh from a third league triumph. "I don't come out and fight my corner, I leave it to other people if they want to do that.

"I know what I have done and what I am like. It does not harm me personally but I do wonder why my name keeps cropping up. I have been involved in misdemeanours in the past but I hadn't a clue where these things come from."

When leaving West Ham for Leeds in 2000, he wanted leave the glitzy London nightlife and concentrate on soccer. He is frustrated that blots on his reputation as the big-spending snarling Londoner are hard to shake off.

"I was always associated with the bling culture but whoever knows me knows that for the best part of six years I haven't been into bling," he said. "OK, I like a nice watch, drive a nice car and wear nice clothes but being bling means spending money on willy-nilly things, having no respect for the game and it was the sort of thing I was accused of.

"To me, that is unwarranted. But people have assumptions about the way you are."

Mostly that overshadows the social activist side of Ferdinand, the anti-gun campaigner, who survived the hard-bitten and violent London suburb of Peckham.

"I don't do all the charitable stuff to get recognition off the managers or from the football fraternity," he said. "I always thought if I ever got the opportunity to be where I am at today then to be able to go back and give something back, or be any kind of inspiration for a young kid, it would all be worthwhile."

Ferdinand concedes to have learnt form his mistakes and indicative of that, being elevated to the captaincy by both United manager Alex Ferguson and England's Fabio Capello.

"The two managers are not going to make me captain if they don't trust me," he said. "People might not have thought I was responsible enough to do it and that might lead people to believe I am a reformed character."

The Luzhniki Stadium is the stage to complete the turnaround. - Sapa-AP