Rio Ferdinand admitted he does not remember parts of his career because he used to drink copious amounts of Guinness and vodka after West Ham United games.<\/p>\n
The former England captain revealed he was ‘a lunatic’ during the early stages of his career and embarked on day-drinking sessions.<\/p>\n
Ferdinand eventually earned lucrative moves to Leeds United and Manchester United, but still admitted to spending two weeks of his summer drinking.<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Guardian, the 40-year-old confessed:\u00a0\u201cI used to get through a load when I was younger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could probably do eight, nine, 10 [pints of Guinness]. Then I\u2019d move on to the vodkas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could go through loads. I could go all day drinking, then wake up and go again when I was younger.<\/p>\n
“I always say to people who ask if I have any regrets about playing, I wouldn\u2019t have drunk alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n
The culture around drinking and professional footballers now is remarkably different to the days of Ferdinand’s youth.<\/p>\n
A product of the prestigious ‘Academy of Football’, the former ballet dancer admitted to more than holding his own alongside his peers.<\/p>\n
Asked if he drunk more than most footballers, Ferdinand replied: “When I was younger I did. I was a lunatic.<\/p>\n
“When I was at West Ham… elements of my career are a blur. People talk about performances and results at certain times in them games and I just sit and nod my head.<\/p>\n
“I haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. I don’t remember.”<\/p>\n
Although the former centre-half would never drink before games, he could be regularly found in the hottest pubs and clubs after West Ham had played.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaturday or Sunday – It was a different culture,” Ferdinand claims. “Crazy. The culture I was in at West Ham was a drinking culture. Football and drinks and nightclubs, that\u2019s the way it was. And that\u2019s the way I lived at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
After leaving the Hammers for Leeds in 2000, a record-breaking transfer to the Red Devils followed just two years later when Sir Alex Ferguson splashed out \u00a330 million to make the youngster the most expensive British player and the most expensive defender in history at that stage.<\/p>\n
In September 2003, Ferdinand failed to attend a drugs test and was given a \u00a350,000 fine and an eight-month ban from the sport.<\/p>\n
However, he stopped drinking during the season after his move to Old Trafford – but made up for it during the off-season.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIn the summers I\u2019d drink for two weeks. Bang. Just keep drinking.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rio Ferdinand admitted he does not remember parts of his career because he used to drink copious amounts of Guinness and vodka after West Ham United games. The former England captain revealed he was ‘a lunatic’ during the early stages of his career and embarked on day-drinking sessions. Ferdinand eventually earned lucrative moves to Leeds…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}