3 days ago
Rio Ferdinand makes it all about himself for one final time
Rio Ferdinand has called his last game for TNT Sports and has left the channel. How should we assess his TV career?
When he first worked for BT a decade ago, he was less polished but more insightful. I recall him explaining, for instance, how marking Lionel Messi was not just physically draining but mentally exhausting because Messi had so many ideas and options on receipt of the ball and was entirely unpredictable as to what choices he would select.
Rio, recently retired, knew of what he spoke because he had played against the Argentine a few months previously. He was great at this: animated, vivid in description, candid.
Once he no longer had recent first-hand experience upon which to draw, he was compelled to develop a new on-screen persona, as all ex-players are once they have been retired a while, at least if they want to stay relevant and on the telly A-list.
Some of the obvious archetypes – the hanging judge, the tactician, the statesman, the provocateur – had been either over-subscribed or were not a natural fit for him but he nevertheless managed to carve out an enthusiastic, been-there-done-that niche that appeared authentic to his nature, and his deep medal collection.
This was categorised by various factors. Visually, a strong sense of personal style, befitting the son of a tailor, and his farewell outfit for TNT Sports was in keeping with that; a bold black double-breasted suit with no tie but a starched regency collar and a sort of barrister's court band or collarette.
A fine figure of a man at 6ft 2in, still with the lean, loose, ballet dancer's grace that once made him such a magnificent covering defender, his exit leaves the TNT squad down to the bare bones in terms of on-screen panache.
Owen Hargreaves and Steven Gerrard, also in black suits with open necks on Saturday, looked respectively like the branch manager of a Surrey estate agent and a man about to thump one of his in-laws at the evening bit of a wedding.
Rio's suiting and, especially, chunky knitwear choices have been unimpeachable and will be missed.
On the other hand, he was wearing loafers on Saturday with 'thank you' and 'good night' embossed upon them and had previewed his valedictory co-commentary assignment on social media with 'the last dance'.
Some in the internet peanut gallery, cruelly, were popping the metaphorical champagne at the exit news but, even as a fan, I can see why some say that he has a tendency to make it all about him.
Incidentally, TNT has been better at curbing this in Rio and others than BT was in the last days of the Jake Humphrey tenure and it gave him a warm but unshowy send-off via Laura Woods in Munich.
It's one final goodbye from the TNT Sports team 👋
Good luck in the future, @rioferdy5 ❤️
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 31, 2025
Anyhow, in the last few years, Rio had taken it upon himself to act as a celebrity Manchester United supporter, gratingly biased at times on screen, part of a trend towards unashamedly partisan commentary that plumbed new depths in April when he and Robbie Savage soiled the furniture during a United win over Lyon.
He has got into needless beefs with morons on the internet. He has previous in this regard from his playing days, sometimes with negative outcomes, such as the episode when he went the 'your mum' route to some nobody criticising him on Twitter and got his knuckles rapped by the FA. If I were his manager or people I would be rationing his social media use like a hawk.
His energies now seem directed into becoming a sort of unofficial godfather to the next generation of superstars, for instance when he appeared to be having a neurological event in repeatedly shouting 'Ballon d'Or! Ballon d'Or!' about Vinicius Junior or, at the Champions League final, when he was banging on and on (and on) about how good and how young the PSG players are.
The generous reading is that he loves football and cool players and he sometimes expresses himself in the manner of a 14-year-old on PlayStation. The more cynical take would be that he has cannily figured out that his media future doesn't lie in trading pitchside platitudes on paywalled TV with Stevie G, but in connecting directly with the yoof, both talent and customers, for clout and cash.
That would be consistent with leaving telly to do his YouTube channel Rio Ferdinand Presents (1.3 million subscribers) where he makes matey interviews with fellow ledges such as Cristiano Ronaldo but also, and this is the future-proofing bit, with the new generation like Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Vitinha of PSG.
He has always come across as a man with a heart and a hinterland (his ventures into pop music production, a football academy in Uganda, social activism, a brilliant and rather beautiful documentary about bereavement) but also, and I do not wish to be unkind, as a man with an unfortunate habit of making a bit of a wally of himself (Rio's World Cup Wind Ups, driving bans, announcing that he was going to become a boxer, missing a drugs test because he was in Harvey Nicks).
He certainly does not seem to torture himself with questions about the morality of shilling for Saudi Arabia and he does give off the air of a person who would always be looking over your shoulder for somebody more important to glad-hand. But kind of lovably so?
I suspect that, much like his playing career, his new media direction will see him be largely excellent but with the occasional howler.
Telegraph Sport readers have not generally enjoyed his television work so, if he leaves that role to become a kind of Good Vibes Spreader-at-large and internet-based intergenerational booster and superfan, then that decision could be said to suit all parties.
We should wish him good night and good luck.
