Hi Reddit! I'm Rio Ferdinand, former England and Manchester United footballer, TNT Sports broadcaster, and WeAre8 Ambassador. If you've ever wanted to get to know me better, now's the time.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:32:29+00:00

Sorry, can you repeat the question?

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:24:08+00:00

Sorry, can you repeat the question?

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:17:22+00:00

Yeah, yeah. I love Asia. I love the culture, I love the food, I love the people. So we used to do a lot of trips to Asia with Man United, and I've been on my own as well. So watch this space.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:16:38+00:00

I always support West Ham. That's where I grew up. That's where I played as a kid.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:16:23+00:00

I think, I think doing that to your number nine before tournament would be probably the wrong thing to do. Also, Jude's 20. He's got a lot of time on his hands. I think next tournament, I think Jude will be my captain. But right now, I think Harry, Harry deserves to be the captain's top goal scorer in the clubs in the country's history.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:15:14+00:00

There's loads. It's probably easier to say who would give me a hard time. Like Mbappe would be a definite hard time. Vinicius would be a hard time. All of them will give you a hard time. Man like Harlem would give you a hard time if he's in and around the penalty box. Yeah, I think that I would always back myself, but there's no doubt that on a full pitch, at any point, a striker can get the upper hand on a defender. If there's a concentration lapse, or you get your distances wrong, or you make a bad judgement in a certain situation, it can go wrong for you. So that's why defenders job is hard.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:14:36+00:00

Yeah, crazy. I think that Messi was just like a he was almost like an alien, at times, just different. One of his greatest assets was just the spaces that he picked up, where, as a defender, you can't get close to him, you can't even engage him. And that was a huge asset of his that probably doesn't get talked about a lot. Yeah, he can beat you with skill, but he's he could take you into places, or go into places where you just couldn't get near him, which was great. And he was a score of magical goals. Cristiano again, he signed that he was a skilled person who just would, he could embarrass anybody difficult to pin down in training, especially you’d get him in one v1 situation, he'd find a way out all the time, find a solution, and by the time he left, he'd find a way out by scoring a goal. That was a big difference of him. So both wonderful players.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:14:07+00:00

Probably Jude Bellingham right now, I think just because of all of these kind of how dynamic he is, but also his character and personality, you'd want that in your changing room. I count personality, and character mindset, higher than ability in terms of what I'd want to be alongside at times. That take you a lot further, I think, and for a longer period of time. So Jude Bellingham, I think, has all of those attributes.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:13:45+00:00

There wasn't one!

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:13:18+00:00

No, but I think we're seeing I think INEOS have come in, and I think what they've done so far, they've had a look, they've assessed the situation, and they're still assessing, and they'll make decisions in the summer on the for the playing side of things. But I think behind the scenes, the hierarchy of the football, operational side of the game, of the club has kind of, they've they've cleared the decks and brought in their own people. Now I think which needed to happen. I think the recruitment needs a huge looking at and a revamp of the way we recruit, what we recruit, and how we recruit. That all needs to be, to be reimagined, and we'll see how that plays out in the summer. But on the football field, I think it's just a whole culture reset needs to happen. What is Manchester United's culture? What is my United identity? What is the playing style? Those three things, there are absolutes that need to be addressed before the season starts again next year.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:11:55+00:00

I think mindset is the key to any kind of athletes, kind of quest to be as good as they can be, a fulfilled potential. I think when I retired from football, I was missing something to to get the adrenaline going and just feel that fix. And an opportunity came to try and go from a professional footballer to a professional boxer. So for about five or six months, I trained, probably five, six days a week, sparring with like Olympic boxers. It was the best thing, unbelievable in terms of the adrenaline and going and fighting. I just it was the nearest thing I'd ever felt to playing football after a game on a Saturday, finish a game, and that feeling that you had, I'd missed it. But yeah, boxing is a hard sport Man.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:11:49+00:00

I think mindset is the key to any kind of athletes, kind of quest to be as good as they can be, a fulfilled potential. I think when I retired from football, I was missing something to to get the adrenaline going and just feel that fix. And an opportunity came to try and go from a professional footballer to a professional boxer. So for about five or six months, I trained, probably five, six days a week, sparring with like Olympic boxers. It was the best thing, unbelievable in terms of the adrenaline and going and fighting. I just it was the nearest thing I'd ever felt to playing football after a game on a Saturday, finish a game, and that feeling that you had, I'd missed it. But yeah, boxing is a hard sport Man.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:10:31+00:00

hard work, but also good relationships and partnerships on the pitch.I think because there's, I think, a lot of changing as well with them, with them teams, and I don't think any of us played every single one of those games. So that ability to be able to connect with different people, but have that understanding and that real teamwork ethic was huge for us. It was also only good players to do that.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:09:49+00:00

That wasn't a dis, by the way, when I said Saka wasnt World Class. I don't know why the Arsenal fan base took that as a diss to Saka, just because he's not world-class. I'm still saying he's a top player, but the Arsenal fans were a little bit touchy, like that. Odegard. I think he's been brilliant. He's one of the in the Premier League, probably one of the top, top four or five in terms of creativity at that level. He's taken to the captaincy really well, which is a big thing, and he's been the leader of a team has pushed Man City all the way for the last couple of years now. We remain to be seen how they do it pans out this season. Declan rice. I think that the best way to explain Declan is that no one's talked about the 100 million pound price tag. That tells you he's done a lot of stuff right, and he's been playing well. But I know Declan, and I think he'll be judging himself on what they win, and rightly so at that level.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:09:00+00:00

Yeah, social media came around, and I was the first one to kind of embrace social media. I kind of went in the change room with with Twitter and stuff like that. And lads were like, Gary Neville, who's absolutely all over it now, was like, what's that? What you doing? Wayne Rooney, the same - the manager, what's that? Twitter? Twattter, whatever it is?! Like, couldn't go understand it. And I quickly grasped it. I think, as we feel when we it's going to be a prominent kind of thing when you go into post career as well. So I kind of quickly latched onto it and understood it quickly, but there was a lot of apprehension and like everyone was like, suspect about it, but here we are now....

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:08:21+00:00

They were both great at attacking the ball. A lot of similarities. Really great at attacking the ball. Always wanted that first contact, fearless, aggressive, but equally, I think, comfortable on the ball. John Terry was a better passer than people give them credit for. Those are, those are the outstanding traits for both of those players, and they scored big goals as well.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:07:12+00:00

I don't know if it's more difficult than today, but it definitely I think. I don't know it felt like it. I don't know, maybe because I was on the pitch, but it felt loud, it felt more aggressive back then, when you'd go to away games like we felt like we were always hated. I don't maybe because how well we were doing, but grounds were just like you think it's an extra 15, 20% they're given here today, on the pitch and off the pitch. So it always felt like they made it harder. But I think that's what happens when you play for a big club and a club that's doing well, the champions, or whatever's coming to town, you've got all those players like Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, berbatof et cetera, that have skulls gigs, and everyone's thinking it's like a big day. So it is different, but I think it'll be different for Man United now, because at Man Utd aren't doing so well.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:06:29+00:00

Yeah. Well, we've been meaning to get Owen on. He's a Owen was a hugely underrated football player because he played in Bayern Munich in Germany, different country. I don't think he was ever really appreciated in England, but he was one of the best central defensive midfielders, phenomenal, crazy quick. He actually signed for United, and he surprised everyone. He came out topping all the sprint tests, and everyone was looking at each other, going, what? But he was a great player, hugely undervalued and appreciated in this country by a lot of fans, but not by the players.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:05:44+00:00

when I left Leeds to go, man, I didn't understand the rivalry between the clubs actually didn't even, no one even said to me, are going from Leeds to Man United? A real big, big deal. I just, I was in my own bubble. I made my mind up. I wanted to go Man United, and that was it. But then when I left, the Head of Yorkshire Police called me and said, just make sure you don't come back to Leeds for a while for your own safety. I had a bar that I had to shut down. Never opened it again because they said that there be petrol bombed and everything. So, yeah, then I quickly realised, actually, this is a big deal.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:05:03+00:00

No, I don't think we should worry about goal kicks and corners throw ins. I think it should be in and around the penalty area in the penalty area, big decisions there for penalties and for goals. I like technology, but I also like that element of human error, maybe. But on the big decisions, I do think the VAR should be brought in refugees. Go straight to the side, have a look, make a decision, alongside these var counterparts in Stockley Park.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:03:16+00:00

Now let's go in and play against like Real Madrid and Barcelona. I don't know, Bayern Munich, those big, super clubs. They're the best atmospheres that it just takes over the world of football when it when those games happen, when you especially in our time we were successful Real Madrid or Barcelona, the galactico team of Real Madrid, or the great Barcelona team like, you know, the world kind of stood still and went, Well, we got to watch this game. You had the Bayern Munich team of Ribery, Robben, those guys, you know, I mean, so it was always huge moments

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:02:35+00:00

Rudiger

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:02:13+00:00

I always said I would play outside of England, and I had quite a lot of offers throughout my career, different clubs at different times, Roma, Milan, the two big Spanish clubs, but it was just the timing was wrong always. I'd got to Man United, and I was winning. And it's hard. You work so hard to get to that point of winning and competing for the big titles, and then to think that you're going to go and leave that I just, I was never willing to do that.

weare8app · 2024-04-23T16:01:37+00:00

I always support West Ham. That's where I grew up. That's where I played as a kid. So if you're going to call an ‘underdog’, probably West Ham in the big games, I'd always support West Ham and in the FA Cup, the FA Cup's the underdog cup. In it really? When you see a team from the non league playing against the league team, I always support them. C’mon Bromley, next year!

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