ANTON Ferdinand’s wedding ring puts the bling into blinding with the dazzle off it quite something, which suggests he has done rather well out of football. But when the 33-year-old talks about joining St Mirren as a dream and that all he wants to be doing still is kicking a ball about, it is with the same enthusiasm as a raw kid on a few quid a week.
The defender played Premier League football with West Ham United, Sunderland and Queen’s Park Rangers before doing a bit of travelling – including a short stint with Police United in Thailand – and ended up at Southend for the past two seasons.
Then St Mirren’s new manager, Oran Kearney, put in a call and it didn’t take long for Ferdinand to work out that Paisley would be a good home for him. “I’m happy to be at St Mirren, to play in this league and hopefully keep us in this league,” he said. “I am just a boy that wants to play football. It is what it is. Wherever my career takes me it takes me.
“I’m a boy from Peckham who has lived his dream and is still living his dream. And that is to play football at a high level. To come up to Scotland and play in the Premiership is a really high level. I’m here to play well and enjoy it.
“I had options down south. But what happened was the manager knows a few people at the agency which work for me. So, I came up for a couple of days and after being around the boys for a bit I just knew it’s where I wanted to play.
“A few weeks ago, I was League One at Southend, but I wasn’t really training – just a few sessions with the under-23 team. This is what dreams are made of.”
Ferdinand, who lasted an hour of Friday night’s draw with Celtic – “I was dead on my feet” – has been impressed with Kearney, whose first game could hardly have gone much better.
Ferdinand said: “I have seen things already which make me think he can be a success. I’ve worked with hundreds of managers in my time and, take it from me, you wouldn’t know he has just come out of part-time football from the way he’s been on the training pitch. He has been great.
“It took guts to play the way we did against Celtic. It was his first competitive game in full-time football. He believes in the boys and he believes in his own ability as a manager."
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