Les Ferdinand

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Les Ferdinand MBE
Personal information
Full name	Leslie Ferdinand
Date of birth	December 18, 1966 (age 40)
Place of birth	London, England
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Nickname	"Sir Les"
Playing position	Striker
Youth clubs
1985–1986	Hayes
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1986–1987 1987–1988 1988–1989 1989–1995 1995–1997 1997–2003 2002–2003 2003–2004 2004–2005 2005 2005–2006	QPR → Brentford (loan) → Beşiktaş (loan) QPR Newcastle United Tottenham Hotspur West Ham United Leicester City Bolton Wanderers Reading Watford	003 0(0) 003 0(0) 024 (14) 162 (80) 072 (45) 118 (33) 014 0(2) 029 (12) 014 0(2) 014 0(1) 000 0(0)
National team
1993–1998	England	017 0(5)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Leslie "Les" Ferdinand MBE (born December 18, 1966 in Paddington, London) is a former English footballer. He is best known for his time at Newcastle United and Q.P.R. during the 1990s, during which period his powerful and elegant centre forward play and ability in the air resulted in a number of appearances for England. He is a cousin of current Premiership players Rio and Anton Ferdinand and is popularly nicknamed Sir Les.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Newcastle United 3 Spurs and later career 4 Internationals 5 Trivia 6 References 7 External links

[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.He made only a handful of appearances in his early QPR career and Ferdinand had two loan spells at Brentford and Beşiktaş (in Turkey). He began to establish himself at QPR during 1991 and in his first full season in 1992-93 he bagged an impressive 24 goals in 42 games.It was during this season that he made his England debut in February 1993 against San Marino scoring the final goal in a 6-0 victory at Wembley. He had a great career with Rangers, scoring 90 goals in 183 games, earning him the nickname 'Sir Les'. Much to the fan's disappointment, although not surprise - he had actually been expected to leave the club at the end of the '93-'94 season - Ferdinand was sold to Newcastle in 1995 for £6 million, with Hayes receiving £600,000 of this (a huge sum for a non-league side) due to a sell-on clause agreed following his major move to QPR.

[edit] Newcastle United

He scored 29 goals in his first season with the Magpies, and significantly contributed to the side's getting within touching distance of the Premiership title in the 1995/96 season. Meanwhile, his absence precipitated Queens Park Rangers' relegation in the 95/96 season. His time at Newcastle made him one of the best strikers in the country at the time, and his strike partnership with Alan Shearer (for club and country) was one of the deadliest. He scored 50 goals in only 84 games at the club. Ferdinand was and indeed is still very highly thought of by Newcastle United and its fans, he received a standing ovation when he came on as a substitute at Alan Shearer's testimonial and subsequently scored.

[edit] Spurs and later career

In 1997 Ferdinand was bought by Spurs, again for £6 million. In the 2002/2003 season he moved to West Ham, but the club was relegated at the end of the season. Ferdinand joined Leicester on a free transfer at the beginning of the 2003/2004 season. After the Foxes were relegated at the end of that season he joined Bolton Wanderers, but left them on January 2, 2005. Four days later, Ferdinand signed with Reading. His contract at the club lasted until the end of the 2004/2005 season.

Ferdinand committed to non-contract terms with FA Premier League side Watford as both part-time player and coach.

[edit] Internationals

For England, Ferdinand was capped 17 times,^[1] scoring five goals. He was part of the Euro 96 and 1998 FIFA World Cup squads.^[1] Even with Ferdinand having a very successful season with Newcastle and them only narrowly missing out on winning the league title in the 1995/96 season, Ferdinand surprisingly didn't get any action in Euro 96, and an injury meant he did not play a match in 1998.

[edit] Trivia

• Les 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.
• He was made an MBE in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List.^[1]
• His son, Aaron currently plays for Harrow Borough in the Isthmian League.
• He was the first player to have scored a goal for six different Premiership teams. The six are QPR, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham, Leicester City and Bolton Wanderers.
• He scored the 10,000th goal in Premiership history (on 15 December 2001 for Tottenham Hotspur against Fulham).
• He played for the 'Alan Shearer XI' in Shearer's testimonial match, on May 11, 2006.
• Ferdinand is a pundit for BBC Sport, as well as also being a permanent contestant in a football quiz show called "Kick Off", shown on the cable TV channel ESPN.
• He is a qualified helicopter pilot and owns at least one helicopter, which he regularly uses.
• Sir Les played and scored in the recent Soccer Aid match at Old Trafford.
• Ferdinand has posted a time on the new Top Gear 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' feature on the popular BBC2 programme.

Preceded by Alan Shearer

PFA Players' Player of the Year 1996

Succeeded by Alan Shearer

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Kate O'Hara. "Queen's Birthday Honours List", Yorkshire Post, 2005-06-11. Retrieved on 2006-10-06.

[edit] External links

• Les Ferdinand's official web site
• Les Ferdinand career stats at Soccerbase
• Les Ferdinand info

	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