Anton Ferdinand certainly felt the pressure of those inevitable comparisons with older brother Rio when Glenn Roeder promoted him to West Ham United’s first-team squad.
And the prospect of going head-to-head with such luminaries as Paolo di Canio, Joe Cole and Jermain Defoe on the training pitch did little to ease those nerves.
It would not take long, though, for Anton Ferdinand to justify the late-Glenn Roeder’s faith and establish himself – as Rio did – as a regular at the heart of the West Ham United backline.
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Former West Ham United stalwart Anton Ferdinand pays Glenn Roeder tribute
“Glenn Roeder gave me my debut. Without him, I don’t have a career,” Ferdinand says on the Football: Saux What? and Mike Drop Studios YouTube channel. “He taught me a lesson that has stuck with me for life.
“My first training session with the first team, I’m walking into Di Canio, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Don Hutchison, Steve Lomas, David James, Freddie Kanoute, Trevor Sinclair.
Anton Ferdinand prior to West Ham's Conference League game against Viborg.
Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images
“They all played with Rio. I’m walking into this session thinking, you know, they’re expecting Rio. Like, ‘Oh my gosh.’
“My mindset; ‘I have to do something that links me to Rio, and then they’re going to be like, Wow’.”
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Ferdinand remembers fondly how Roeder supported his ball-playing qualities at a time when many centre-halves were urged to keep risks to a minimum when in possession.
“We played a nine-v-nine game and I was up against Jermain Defoe and Freddie Kanoute,” Ferdinand adds. “I received the ball off of the goalkeeper because I liked having the ball at my feet. As I checked my shoulders, I was being shut down diagonally from Defoe and Freddie.
“I went to go through them, and as they were coming, I turned back to go and pass the ball back to the goalkeeper. As I went to pass, I chopped back through them, so they kept running!
Glenn Roeder is announced as new West Ham manager
14 Jun 2001: Glenn Roeder is announced as new West Ham manager during a press conference held at Upton Park, in London. Mandatory Credit: Warren Little /Allsport
“All of a sudden, Glenn Roeder goes, ‘This is why he’s here!’ And I was like, ‘Wow… yeah, I should be here.’ It was unbelievable.
“I had a conversation with Joe Cole a few years ago and I was saying to him, ‘Do you know how nervous I was coming to that session? Because I thought you were expecting Rio and I wasn’t him.’
“And he went, ‘You know what, Anton, now you’ve said it, I get it. But at that time, that weren’t a thought process. We all knew you were good because Glenn Roeder didn’t stop talking about you.'”
The Hammers are two games away from an FA Cup final
While he did not reach the same Champions League-winning heights as his elder brother, Anton would go on to make 163 appearances for the Hammers; a key figure in their promotion-winning campaign and their run to the FA Cup final under Alan Pardew.
Anton even scored the winner against Rio’s Manchester United side at the height of the Red Devils’ double-winning dominance.
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Ferdinand keeps a keen eye on West Ham’s ‘academy of football’ to this day. Sunday’s FA Cup fifth-round clash with Leeds – the club who paid a world-record £18 million fee for Rio at the turn of the century – may offer Ezra Mayers and co another chance to follow in the footsteps of the Ferdinand brothers.
The Hammers have not won the FA Cup since 1980, and haven’t reached the final since losing to Liverpool on penalties in 2006.
Nuno Espirito Santo, then, faces a dilemma. Does he go full-strength, risking injury while Premier League survival is on the line? Or does he field Mayers, Mohamadou Kante and co alongside some of his more experienced campaigners with a Wembley semi-final within reach?
Unfortunately for Anton, his legacy will forever be linked to that penalty miss as Pepe Reina’s heroics secured Liverpool FA Cup glory at the Millennium Stadium two decades ago.
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