Rio Ferdinand on decision to move to Dubai, Man United's prospects and the pros and cons of social media

Former England defender says lifestyle, weather and education system all factors in decision to move his family to UAE

Rio Ferdinand and his wife Kate are moving to Dubai with their young children. AFP

Rio Ferdinand played most of his club football for the Uniteds of Manchester, Leeds and West Ham, winning everything there was to win under Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford. The South Londoner, now 46, also played 81 times for England and was widely regarded as one of the best central defenders in world football. He’s about to move to Dubai with his family. Before he did, The National sat down with Ferdinand in Chicago.

You're about to embark on a new chapter in your life and move to the UAE. What's your thinking behind it?

There’s not one reason. I went for the Global Soccer Awards at Christmas and I hadn't been there properly for about seven or eight years. I used to go there all the time before. We spent time with a couple of (partner) Kate's friends who lived there and I just saw a different side to it. I also have a business out there, Football Escapes.

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I thought about moving, then we went back again in February for a little look at the schools just in case and it just pricked my mind to think about it. That was almost like a big kicker for me because the education system felt different, felt better for my kids.

The children who are coming are 14, which is perfect because it's their two years of GCSEs starting this August. Then we’ve got a four and a two-year-old, so it's perfect timing for them as well. And the curriculum is English curriculum, but it's just done a different way. I feel the teachers in the UK feel a little bit like undervalued, underpaid.

In Dubai, it feels like they're valued and the lifestyle means that they're happy and vibrant with a good energy for the kids. Lifestyle, safety, weather and just a new life. I wanted a new chapter and I've been doing TNT (TV) since I retired for the last 10-11 years. When I made the decision, I thought ‘this must be 30 years when my life is driven by the fixture list’. Not now.

I'm not leaving football, but it's just not the governing body of my life now. I've got to be honest, it feels nice.

Those games when you’re by the pitch at a European game actually take up three days …

There's a lot of research talking to the producers, the director, the pundits. Doing the clips in the days before the game. You travel to the game the day before and leave the day after. That's three days where you can't do anything in your diary.

For every Champions League week, I was doing two games. I love it. I still love it now. It's just I wanted to do something new and different and I'm quite instinctive. I've got a lot of interests outside of football like investments, tech investing especially.

And I've got shareholdings in a lot of companies that I've never utilised with my own network that's been built up all over all these years to really benefit those companies. So I'm looking forward to doing that and investing time in that and networking and bringing it all together in that sense and still doing loads in football. And the way I present stuff with my media company, I'm going to supercharge that because I've got more time.

I want the headspace and the bandwidth to be able to kind of go in and operate in different areas, which I haven't been able to. And I get thrown so many opportunities that I can't take because I've got five kids that I want to be around. I've got a wife.

We want to visit everywhere. My kids are going to embrace everything. Me and my wife will be the same. I'm excited by it, I've got to be honest.

My four-year-old is mad about football, so I've got to find the best football school, the best coach out there to try and create another footballer, because my two other boys play. So I'm leaving them behind, but they're young men now who are trying to forge a way in the game.

Were TNT surprised when you said you were leaving?

I think so, it was quite instinctive. It wasn't like something that's built up over years. They're great people there and it was amicable. And I can go back if I want.

I would never do anything like this without speaking to my family. Kate was the same and said: ‘What's the worst that can happen? You can come back in a year'. And even if I did it's not going to be coming back with your tail between your legs, but having tried something. You don't get many opportunities in life to do something a bit different either because of the industry I'm in. You've got to be here, you've got to do this, you're led by the schedule. This is freedom that I've never had since I was 16 years old and it’ll be interesting to see how I deal with that, which I'm looking forward to.

Many footballers have moved to the UAE

Yes. Patrice Evra. [Michel] Salgado. Loads of them have said to me to go. Patrice has created a whole image of himself through social media. I was one of the first footballers to go on Twitter and I remember all the lads like Gary Neville, Patrice and Wayne Rooney asking what on earth I was doing. The manager [Alex Ferguson] was the same. He said ‘What's this Twitter business, all this rubbish?’

I explained it to them all and they didn't have a clue. The boss just walked off halfway through the explanation but he didn’t try and stop me. He let me make my own decisions.

I just saw myself in the fans' shoes. I would want to see behind the curtain. I just embraced it. It exploded and here we are now in a social media world. But I love that tech space, there's something about it that I love, it's ever evolving, it never stands still. There are so many opportunities out there for us with tech and that's part of the YouTube channel.

We've got a podcast which has got about four different strands. It's called Rio Presents. So it's got Rio Meets where we do the real headline interviews like Cristiano [Ronaldo], Becks [David Beckham], [Robert] Lewandowski. We've got some good ones coming out. We've done an unbelievable one with Wazza [Wayne Rooney] and Michael Owen. Michael Owen's one's unreal.

Do you feel you can get under players’ skins because your trust levels are high with them?

Watch the videos. These players become different, their whole body language just grows. Whereas, no disrespect – and I know you know some players well – it’s not like that with all the journalists.

With me, there's no agent in the room. And I'm not bound by the studio rules now, which I was before. New chapter, new rules.

Is the geography also a reason for the move?

I've been unable to go to Asia much because it's so far. There's so many fans in the world that support Man United and have supported me because of that, but I never get to touch and feel it, never get to go and see it.

I'm going to be in the Mena region in Dubai – six, seven hours closer now to going to many places in Asia. I'm going to be travelling around the world. I'm going to be going to Madrid, I'm going to be going to Argentina, I'm going to be going to Africa, I'm going to be going everywhere to talk football with the fans and bring the fans closer to us.

Are you still in touch with your old United teammates?

We have a WhatsApp group. It's more the 2008 era, than some of the younger ones. Edwin ([Van der Sar] recently joined it. Nemanja [Vidic] was in it and he walked out because there was too much going on. Just deleted himself. Patrice comes in and out because someone says something Patrice doesn't like, he just deletes himself and then asks me to come back in because I'm the admin.

Wazza, the De Silva twins, Anderson, Ashley Young, [Danny] Welbeck, Tom Cleverley, Fletch [Darren Feltcher], Sheasy [John O'Shea], [Michael] Carrick, Quinny, everyone, all the lads in it. From that era really.

Is the fact many of you were all so successful - and now in the media - a problem for the current players?

It's probably a bit of a noose around the neck of the current squad the last few years.

I always would say that if someone had a problem with me and I sat with them and explained what I was saying, they would realise that I'm not a personally vindictive person. If you'd played bad, if we had a sit-down and a conversation over a cup of tea, and I said what I said on TV, I think you'd shake my hand on the way out. I'm highlighting the mistake that you've made and how you can make it better, and I'm not sitting here saying I was perfect, but in my job, in my role, I've got to say what I see - but without being personal, and that's the line.

I try and be constructive in the way that I talk. And then you get some players, I think it's not necessarily them, it's their circle, that send them stuff and then if the context is wrong it warps reality.

And that's why I went on social media at the beginning, because it was almost like, ‘this is my chance to say what I mean.’

Do you miss the innocence of early social media?

There is an innocence that's gone and you've got to almost be a bit more polished and perfect because everything can be traced, there's no hiding place now. I was talking to someone about whether it was better to play in my era or not. I think it's harder now. If I played badly, the only real outlets were Match of the Day that night if it was one of the main games and then the Sunday papers, then it was gone. Now it's social media that never goes away, so if there’s a video of you making a mistake or getting twisted inside out, it's just regurgitated constantly, it's always there.

And then your mates are sending it to you, or you're in a group and everyone's having a laugh at you. And people think you're a hard man really, but that is chipping away at your confidence. And I don't care who you are, a player without confidence or a little chink in it is not the same.

Have you been stung by social media?

I've got thick skin; I couldn’t care less what someone says about me. It does wind me up sometimes, but then at the beginning I was a bit kind of volatile and I'd go back. I got fined quite a lot of money over the years when I was playing because of certain things I'd said and retaliated to certain people, but then you quickly learn, you mature.

But I look at it for these players now. When you’re winning nothing affects you, you've got your wings on and you're just rolling with the punches, it's fine. The moment you start losing or your form drops, it creates an element of doubt. When there's that creak, certain things that will get in, criticisms and noises will end up being there and when you're trying to be your best and trying to play and you're fighting for form, it's hard to get them away.

We talk about Man United, but you were a top player for Leeds and for West Ham. Is there a space in your brain for them?

Mixed feelings with Leeds fans. The sensible Leeds fans could sit there and go, ‘OK, at the time I didn't understand it, but then I've seen how in trouble the club were and they had to sell. He's gone to Man United who are one of the teams we don't get on with but he's gone and won a load of trophies, so he's justified in why he's going there’.

But it’s tribal. Leeds was probably one of the most enjoyable, carefree times of my life. And I loved the football. I've got a [WhatsApp] group with all the Leeds lads. I had a great time there, but some of the fans are quite volatile towards me.

West Ham?

West Ham fans, I love it, I love them. I love West Ham. That was my home as a kid. You can never forget that. You can never take away those memories and then moments. Me and Frank Lampard together, coming through the FA Youth Cup team. Then we had John Moncur, Steve Lomas, Steve Potts, Alvin Martin, [Paolo] Di Canio, Trevor Sinclair - some of the best memories of my life then. I'm always forever thankful to West Ham for what they gave me, the platform. But it's just that most of my career has been at Man United and that's who everyone wants to talk to me about.

Matheus Cunha is just one of the new summer recruits at Manchester United. Getty Images

How will your main three former clubs do this season? The three Uniteds.

If Man United could finish in the top eight, that’s a good improvement. That and some consistent football. I'm happy with the recruitment of the players with Premier League experience, which is great, a must. I still would want one more or two more.

You must see now an improvement in results, but you must see a style of football where it looks like these players are playing almost blind. The ball's going, you can see the patterns of play repeating themselves on a regular basis because that's when you're knowing that the training is transferring to the match.

And I haven't seen that enough. And only in the best teams and teams that win and are consistent, you're seeing transferable skills and patterns from training that transfer to games. That's what our team was.

People think ours was all off the cuff. There were so many things transferred from the training field that we'd done. Third men running, rotations. These are all things that we were doing with your eyes closed, but this manager hasn't had the time yet. And that's why he didn't want to come at the time that he came because the pre-season is so important. I don't think fans realise how important a pre-season is.

West Ham?

West Ham need to recruit a few players. They've obviously lost their most creative player outside of [Jarrod] Bowen in [Mohammed] Kudus. I think it could be a tough season for West Ham if they don't recruit well.

Leeds?

Survival is the biggest thing. But I'm of the thinking that the three teams that came up again could be the ones that go down. And if this keeps happening, it's not good for the model. But let’s see.