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Anton Julian Ferdinand (born 18 February 1985) is an English former footballer who most recently played for St Mirren as a centre back. He was a product of the West Ham United academy and has also played for their senior team, Queens Park Rangers, Sunderland, Bursaspor, Antalyaspor and Reading. He has also played for England at under-21 level. Ferdinand retired from professional football in July 2019.
In the 2004–05 season, he cemented his first team place with several key performances including scoring the opening goal, and his first for West Ham, on the final day of the season as West Ham beat Watford 2–1 at Vicarage Road to make the play-offs. In the Final Ferdinand was a member of the team which beat Preston 1–0, earning them promotion back into the Premier League after an absence of two years. At the end of July 2005, Ferdinand signed a three-year contract extension with the club.
Ferdinand won the Premier League Player of the Month award in January 2006, following his brother Rio to become the first brothers to win the award. In the 2006 FA Cup Final against Liverpool in Cardiff, Ferdinand fell to his knees after missing the decisive penalty in the shoot out. During the 2005–06 season, Ferdinand was linked with reigning Spanish champions FC Barcelona.
In March 2007 it was revealed that Ferdinand had been fined two weeks' wages (estimated at £45,000) for lying about his whereabouts. Ferdinand told the club he needed to go to the Isle of Wight to visit his grandmother when in fact, he went to South Carolina to celebrate his 22nd birthday. West Ham lost the following game to relegation rivals Charlton Athletic 0–4. His last goal for West Ham was against Fulham on 12 January 2008, scoring in the 69th minute to put West Ham 2–1 ahead, which proved to be the winning goal.
Ferdinand was a regular selection for England's under-21 side, having made his début in a 3–1 win over Ukraine at the Riverside Stadium on 17 August 2004.
Ferdinand was selected to be part of the England squad for the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship in the Netherlands, and given the number 5 shirt. Going into the tournament whilst recovering from an injury, he made only one appearance off the bench in the semi-final against the hosts. The match finished 1–1 after extra time and in the resulting penalty shootout, he missed the decisive kick as England lost by a record 13–12 score. This was his final U21 appearance.
Ferdinand is also eligible to play for the Republic of Ireland national team through his mother and Saint Lucia through his father.
When the trial began in July 2012, Terry entered a not guilty plea and was acquitted of the charge on 13 July 2012. The court established that neither Ferdinand nor anyone else had heard Terry's words, but Terry himself admitted that he had directed the words "fucking black cunt" and "fucking knobhead" at Ferdinand, which was affirmed by two expert lip readers from video evidence. Terry maintained that he used the words as a form of sarcasm and that he was questioning what he thought had been an allegation of racism from Ferdinand; neither lip reader was able to "identify whether the statement was made as a question or in what type of voice it was said." Chief Magistrate Riddle concluded that while there was no doubt Terry had uttered those words in anger, "it is impossible to be sure exactly what were the words spoken by Terry at the relevant time" and that there was a lack of evidence to prove beyond a doubt that Terry had used them as an insult instead of "a challenge to what he believed had been said to him." The court therefore found Terry not guilty.[1]
On 27 July 2012, the FA charged Terry for using "abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour" which "included a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Ferdinand." The FA had delayed the charge until after the conclusion of Terry's criminal trial. Terry denied the charge. On the eve of the FA's hearing, Terry announced his retirement from the England national football team, saying his position had become "untenable" due to the disciplinary charge. On 27 September 2012, the hearing concluded with Terry being found guilty; he was punished with a four-match ban and a £220,000 fine.
The FA published a 63-page report regarding the disciplinary proceedings conducted by an Independent Regulatory Commission; it labelled aspects of Terry's defence as "improbable, implausible and contrived," finding it "inherently unlikely that if he had been accused by Mr. Ferdinand of calling him something that ended with the words "black cunt", that Mr. Terry would have added the word "fucking" when he threw the words back, if he was genuinely doing so by way of forceful denial" and "inherently improbable" that he would call Anton Ferdinand a "fucking knobhead" for falsely accusing him of racial abuse. The Commission found it "implausible" that to robustly deny having used the words "black cunt" he "simply repeated" them. His defence in court was not that he had "simply repeated" the words but that he had "sarcastically" repeated them (see above); however, there was no reference to sarcasm in the Regulatory Commission's 63-page written report. The Commission concluded that it was "quite satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that there was no credible basis for Mr. Terry's defence that his use of the words 'fucking black cunt' were directed at Ferdinand by way of forceful rejection and/or inquiry. Instead, the quite satisfied, and found on the balance of probabilities, that the offending words were said by way of insult."
The FA commission was also criticised as a "kangaroo court" and the FA for its lack of independence, for failing to disclose all evidence to the police, failing to tape record their interview with key witness Ashley Cole, for lowering the required burden of proof after the incident had taken place, and for punishing Terry for an offence he had already been cleared of in a criminal court, in contravention of its own rules, which state that verdicts in criminal cases are "presumed to be correct" unless "clear and convincing evidence" to the contrary emerges. Terry's four-match ban was contrasted with Luis Suárez's eight-match ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra (Suárez received a longer ban for using the insults repeatedly) and a 14-year-old schoolboy's five-match ban for telling a referee his name was Santa Claus.
On 18 October 2012, Terry decided not to appeal against the verdict and his four-match ban. He issued an apology for "the language he used in the game" and stated that it was "not acceptable on the football field or indeed in any walk of life." Chelsea announced that they had taken further disciplinary action against Terry while keeping the details confidential. However, Terry and Chelsea still faced media condemnation; Terry was criticised for not directly and personally apologising to Ferdinand, while Chelsea were accused of hypocrisy and double standards by only fining Terry and not stripping him of his captaincy when they have a "zero-tolerance" approach to racism and had previously handed a life ban to a fan who racially abused former Chelsea player Didier Drogba. In a radio interview, Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck and chief executive Ron Gourlay called the incident a "lapse of judgement" and "out of character" from Terry and stated that the club had "taken firm disciplinary action appropriate to the circumstances," adding that "we must not forget he was cleared in a court of law."
In November 2020, the BBC broadcast Anton Ferdinand: Football, Racism and Me, a programme looking at racism and the incident with Terry in 2011. Anton Ferdinand: Football, Racism and Me While promoting the programme on Instagram, Ferdinand received racist abuse by being sent monkey and banana emojis.
Individual
Outside of football
Since retirement, Ferdinand has appeared as a pundit on Talksport. In 2025, Ferdinand appeared as a contestant on the seventeenth series of Dancing on Ice, finishing in third place behind Michaela Strachan and Sam Aston.
Personal life
Ferdinand is a Christianity. He is the brother of former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, as well as the cousin of both Les Ferdinand, a former Queens Park Rangers and Kane Ferdinand, a midfielder for Maidenhead United.
Court case
In October 2006, Ferdinand was arrested on assault charges following a fracas outside a nightclub in Ilford. He was charged in November 2006. He appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 12 November 2007 charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray, arising from this incident. It was alleged that Ferdinand had punched Emile Walker. In his defence, Ferdinand said he had feared he was going to be robbed of his £64,000 watch and was defending himself. On 20 November 2007, Ferdinand was acquitted as the jury accepted he was acting in self-defence.
Charity work
Ferdinand is an Athlete Ambassador for the charity Right To Play.
Racial abuse
On 2 November 2011, John Terry was placed under police investigation following an allegation of racist abuse made at Ferdinand during a match versus Queens Park Rangers. Video footage circulated on the internet led to accusations that Terry called Ferdinand a "fucking black cunt." In response to the video footage, Terry claimed that he was actually asking Ferdinand, "Oi, Anton, do you think I called you a black cunt?" On 25 November 2011, Terry was interviewed under caution by the police. On 21 December 2011, he was charged with using racist language by the Crown Prosecution Service. On 3 February 2012, the Football Association stripped Terry of his England captaincy for the second time, stating that Terry would not captain the national team until the racial abuse allegations against him were resolved.
Career statistics
+Appearances and goals by club, season and competition West Ham United 2003–04 First Division 0 2004–05 EFL Championship 1 2005–06 Premier League 2 2006–07 0 2007–08 2 Sunderland 2008–09 Premier League 0 2009–10 0 2010–11 0 2011–12 0 Queens Park Rangers 2011–12 Premier League 0 2012–13 0 Bursaspor (loan) 2012–13 Süper Lig 0 Antalyaspor 2013–14 0 Reading 2014–15 EFL Championship 0 2015–16 0 Southend United 2016–17 League One 2 2017–18 0 St Mirren 2018–19 Scottish Premiership 0
Honours
West Ham United
External links
Categories: 1985 Births, Living People, Footballers From The London Borough Of Southwark, People From Peckham, English Men's Footballers, England Men's Youth International Footballers, England Men's Under-21 International Footballers, Men's Association Football Central Defenders, West Ham United F.c. Players, Sunderland A.f.c. Players, Queens Park Rangers F.c. Players, Premier League Players, English Football League Players, English People Of Saint Lucian Descent, English People Of Irish Descent, Sportspeople Of Irish Descent, Black British Sportsmen, 21st-century Black British People, Bursaspor Footballers, Expatriate Men's Footballers In Turkey, English Expatriate Men's Footballers, English Expatriate Sportspeople In Turkey, Süper Lig Players, Race And Law, Antalyaspor Footballers, Reading F.c. Players, Southend United F.c. Players, Race-related Controversies In The United Kingdom, People Acquitted Of Assault, St Mirren F.c. Players, Scottish Professional Football League Players, English Christians, 21st-century English Sportsmen
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