Les Ferdinand

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Personal information
Les Ferdinand
Full name	Leslie Ferdinand
Date of birth	8 December 1966 (1966-12-08) (age 41)
Place of birth	London, England
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position	Striker
Youth clubs
1985–1986	Southall Hayes
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1986–1995 1987–1988 1988–1989 1995–1997 1997–2003 2002–2003 2003–2004 2004–2005 2005 2005–2006	Queens Park Rangers → Brentford (loan) → Beşiktaş (loan) Newcastle United Tottenham Hotspur West Ham United Leicester City Bolton Wanderers Reading Watford Total	163 0(80) 003 00(0) 024 0(14) 068 0(41) 118 0(33) 014 00(2) 029 0(12) 012 00(1) 012 00(1) 000 00(0) 443 (184)
National team
1993–1998 1998	England England B	017 00(5) 001 00(1)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Leslie "Les" Ferdinand MBE (born 8 December 1966^[1] in Paddington, London) is a former English footballer. He is best known for his time at Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers, and Newcastle United, during which period his powerful and elegant centre forward play and ability in the air resulted in a number of appearances for England. He became the first player to score for 6 different Premier League clubs.

He is the uncle of current Premiership players Rio and Anton Ferdinand and 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 List.^[2]

1 Club career
2 International career
3 Career statistics
4 Career honours
5 Post-playing career and personal interests
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Club career

[edit] Early career

Ferdinand started his career in non-league football, first at Southall and then moving to Hayes. He was spotted by Queens Park Rangers and moved there for £15,000.

[edit] QPR

Ferdinand made only a handful of appearances in his early QPR career. He had two loan spells at Brentford and Turkish side Beşiktaş. He began to establish himself at QPR in 1991 and in his first full season in 1992–93, he scored an impressive 24 goals in 42 games. Ferdinand scored 90 goals in 183 games for QPR. His departure from QPR in 1995 contributed towards their relegation later that season, and they have yet to return to the Premier League.

[edit] Newcastle United

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. 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.

In both of his seasons on Tyneside, Ferdinand collected runners-up medals in the Premier League. In the second season, they had contested a four-horse race with Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool before Manchester United won the title. In the first season, however, Newcastle had led the league by 12 points at one stage, but were overhauled by United in the final three months of the season.

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 and received a standing ovation when he came on as a substitute at Alan Shearer's testimonial and subsequently scored.

[edit] 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 pairs' 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.

[edit] West Ham

In January 2003, he moved to West Ham United, and scored his first goal for the club against former club Tottenham, 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.

[edit] Leicester

Ferdinand showed his continuing class by scoring 14 Premiership goals, despite being 37 years old. After the Foxes were relegated at the end of that season he joined Bolton Wanderers.

[edit] Bolton

Ferdinand memorably scored for Bolton Wanderers against rivals Manchester United but 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.

[edit] Watford

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.

[edit] International career

Ferdinand made his England debut in February 1993 against San Marino, scoring the final goal, a scissor kick, in a 6–0 victory at Wembley.

For England, Ferdinand was capped 17 times,^[2] scoring five goals. He was part of the Euro 96 and 1998 FIFA World Cup squads.^[2] 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.

[edit] Career statistics

Club Performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
England			League		FA Cup		Football League Cup		Europe		Total
1986-87	Queens Park Rangers	First Division	2	0
1987-88	Queens Park Rangers	First Division	1	0
1987-88	Brentford	Third Division	3	0
Turkey			League		Fortis Turkey Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
1988-89	Beşiktaş	Super League	24	14
England			League		FA Cup		Football League Cup		Europe		Total
1989-90	Queens Park Rangers	First Division	9	2
1990-91			18	8
1991-92			23	10
1992-93		Premier League	37	20
1993-94			36	16
1994-95			37	24
1995-96	Newcastle United	Premier League	37	25
1996-97	Newcastle United	Premier League	31	16
1997-98	Tottenham Hotspur	Premier League	21	5
1998-99			24	5
1999-00			9	2
2000-01			28	10
2001-02			25	9
2002-03			11	2
2002-03	West Ham United	Premier League	14	2
2003-04	Leicester City	Premier League	29	12
2004-05	Bolton Wanderers	Premier League	12	1
2004-05	Reading	Championship	12	1
2005-06	Watford	Championship	0	0
Total	England		419	170
Total	Turkey		24	14
Career Total			443	184

[edit] Career honours

Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Winner

1999 League Cup

[edit] Post-playing career and personal interests

Ferdinand was a pundit for BBC Sport. Beginning with the 2007–08 season, he is a pundit on Setanta's Premiership coverage.

He played and scored in a Soccer Aid match at Old Trafford. He has also been involved in various fundraising events for Cancer Research UK in honour of his mother Adrienne, who died of breast cancer on 12 February 1990. In July 2007 he visited a number of Sport Relief funded projects in Uganda

With fellow former footballers John Barnes and Luther Blissett, he has founded Team48 Motorsport, a team aiming to promote young racing drivers of Afro-Caribbean background. For 2008 they enter the British Touring Car Championship, running Alfa Romeos for white Jamaican Matthew Gore and 18-year-old black Briton Darelle Wilson.

Ferdinand is a qualified helicopter pilot and owns at least one helicopter, which he regularly uses.

Ferdinand has for many years been thought to have been connected with the vandalism of the Blue Peter garden in 1984, however he has always rejected these claims. Although at one point he claimed to have "helped a few lads over the wall", he later claimed to have been joking.^[3]

Ferdinand has appeared on the popular BBC2 programme Top Gear, posting a lap-time of 1:47.4 in the 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' feature.

[edit] References

^ Weekend birthdays, "The Guardian", Guardian Newspapers Limited. (August 11, 2007). Accessed on August 15, 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kate O'Hara. "Queen's Birthday Honours List", Yorkshire Post, 2005-06-11. Retrieved on 2006-10-06.
^ Doyle, Paul (2007-08-10). Small Talk: Les Ferdinand. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by Alan Shearer	PFA Players' Player of the Year 1996	Succeeded by Alan Shearer
Preceded by Paul Dickov	Leicester City F.C. Player of the Year 2004	Succeeded by Danny Tiatto

v • d • e England squad - 1996 UEFA European Championship

1 Seaman • 2 G. Neville • 3 Pearce • 4 Ince • 5 Adams • 6 Southgate • 7 Platt • 8 Gascoigne • 9 Shearer • 10 Sheringham • 11 Anderton • 12 Howey • 13 Flowers • 14 Barmby • 15 Redknapp • 16 Campbell • 17 McManaman • 18 Ferdinand • 19 P. Neville • 20 Stone • 21 Fowler • 22 Walker • Coach: Venables

v • d • e England squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup

1 Seaman • 2 Campbell • 3 Le Saux • 4 Ince • 5 Adams • 6 Southgate • 7 Beckham • 8 Batty • 9 Shearer • 10 Sheringham • 11 McManaman • 12 Neville • 13 Martyn • 14 Anderton • 15 Merson • 16 Scholes • 17 Lee • 18 Keown • 19 L. Ferdinand • 20 Owen • 21 R. Ferdinand • 22 Flowers • Coach: Hoddle

Persondata
NAME	Ferdinand, Leslie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ferdinand, Les
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Footballer
DATE OF BIRTH	1966-12-08
PLACE OF BIRTH	London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH