Former West Ham United academy graduate Anton Ferdinand was in reflective mood this week and says the club gave him one of the best days of his life.
Anton Ferdinand during his West Ham days
Ferdinand, the younger brother of another ex-Hammers star Rio, spent last season at Southend United.
The Ferdinands have a lot of history at West Ham, where both graduated from the club’s self-styled ‘Academy of football’ and into the first team as centre halves.
Brothers Anton and Rio Ferdinand
Anton was always passionate about representing his boyhood club and made 138 appearances for the East Londoners, scoring five memorable goals along the way.
He was sold to Sunderland in 2008 with the club struggling financially after the Icelandic banking collapse.
While Rio’s career reached the very pinnacle of the professional game, Anton’s has stuttered and stalled since the fallout from the infamous John Terry incident with failed stints in Turkey and Thailand.
Ferdinand celebrates winning promotion with Nigel Reo-Coker
He returned home to England in 2014, though, with a two-year spell at Reading before moving to Southend.
With his immediate future uncertain, Ferdinand was in reflective mood this week and revealed on Twitter that West Ham gave him one of the best days, not just of his career but his life, as they were promoted back to the Premier League by beating Preston in the Championship Playoff Final 12 years ago this week.
Anton with the trophy
“One of the best days of my life taking the club I support back to the Prem and achieving my own dreams of playing in the Prem #dreamsdocometrue,” Ferdinand said on Twitter.
The 32-year-old, who also played for Queens Park Rangers, played an integral part of that promotion winning side under Alan Pardew and helped stabilise the club in the top flight until he was sold to the Black Cats.
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