If Rio Ferdinand had retired from football after leaving Manchester United then he would have done so with his head held high and covered in glory.
The former England defender admitted he was ready hang up his boots and to turn to a television career as a pundit after a successful spell with the BBC for the World Cup in the summer. But then Harry Redknapp came calling.
His connection with the Hoops manager goes back a long time to 1996 when Redknapp gave a young Ferdinand his first team debut for West Ham in a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday on the final day of the season. Such a connection has formed a good friendship between the two over the years and would have gone a long way to convincing the 35-year-old to changing his mind about retirement and playing for the London club.
But after winning six Premier League titles, an FA Cup and a Champions League trophy during his stay at Old Trafford, which also saw him capped 81 times for England, wouldn’t it have been more beneficial to his legacy to end on a high? His fitness was regularly called in to question during his final season at Old Trafford as United failed miserably under David Moyes.
His new club face a potential relegation battle and are not likely to win any honours, barring a good cup run and a lot of luck. Not only that but, the club faces potential FFP sanctions following some serious over spending, despite recording debt and losses in the last financial year. In a world where football fans are fickle and tend to only remember you for your latest season, it does not seem very fitting for a player of his calibre to retire on the back of possible relegation and scandal at the football club.
On the flip side, he definitely brings a touch of class and greatness to Loftus Road and it might prove a much needed boost to QPR. His experience will be of great value and he will be a vital player in the team. To be a big fish in a small pond might be just the sort of thing that helped attract Ferdinand to his new club, as it does for quite a lot of former players who end up at smaller clubs towards the last few seasons of their career.
On his own, however, he might not be able to save the club from leaking goals as we saw all too well against his former club at the weekend, where the defence leaked four goals and could have easily conceded a few more but for the outstretched finger tips of Robert Green on a few occasions.
It is hard to see the attraction in being a big player at the end of his career, to go to a smaller club to see out your playing days in footballing obscurity. Look at Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. They retired at the top of their game and recognised that the time was right to hang up their boots and be remembered for the great players they were.
Rio Ferdinand is in the same bracket when it comes to legend status. He is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best English defenders to have played the modern game and he’ll go down in history as one of the greats. But there is no denying how good a player he has been over his career, which is why he should have called it a day when he had the chance to do so.
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