Anton Ferdinand

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.

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 joined West Ham aged nine later signing a three-year professional contract in the summer of 2002.

He was handed his first team debut, by manager Glenn Roeder, in August 2003 when he started the 2–1 victory at Preston North End on the 2003–04 season's opening day.

He went on to feature in 26 games that season.

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.

During the 2005–06 season, Ferdinand was linked with reigning Spanish champions FC Barcelona.

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.

In March 2007 it was revealed that Ferdinand had been fined two weeks' wages (estimated at £45,000) for lying about his whereabouts.

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.

On 27 August 2008, Ferdinand signed for Sunderland for an undisclosed fee on a four-year deal.

Sunderland manager Roy Keane also stated after the signing of Ferdinand that he viewed him as a future England International.

Ferdinand made a promising start to his Sunderland career in a partnership formed with Danny Collins but Sunderland's poor results at the start of the 2008–09 season saw Keane experiment with several different back four line-ups resulting in Ferdinand being in and out of the side.

Following captain Dean Whitehead's departure to Stoke City in July 2009, Nyron Nosworthy took Whitehead's vacated number 6 jersey and Ferdinand switched from number 26 to number 5.

Ferdinand fell out of favour with new manager Steve Bruce and first team opportunities became limited and he was not initially given a squad number for the 2010–11 Premier League season as loan-signing John Mensah was given Ferdinand's number 5 shirt, but was later given number 29.

On 31 August 2011, Sunderland accepted a bid from Queens Park Rangers for Ferdinand.

The transfer was confirmed on 1 September.

He made his debut on 12 September, playing the full 90 minutes, alongside Danny Gabbidon in a 0–0 draw with Newcastle United at Loftus Road.

On 23 October, in a match between QPR and Chelsea, Ferdinand alleged racial abuse by Chelsea captain, John Terry, claiming Terry called him a "fucking black cunt" during the game; a claim denied by Terry.

On 1 November, the Metropolitan Police announced a formal investigation into the allegations.

On 1 February 2012 at Westminster Magistrates' Court, Terry was accused of a racially aggravated public order offence in relation to the game at Loftus Road on 23 October.

He entered a not-guilty plea and stood trial on 9 July.

On 13 July, after a four-day trial, Terry was acquitted.

In July, following the court hearing Terry was charged by The Football Association with "using abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour towards Ferdinand and which included a reference to colour and/or race contrary to FA Rule E3[2]".

In September 2012, after a four-day hearing, he was found guilty, banned for four games and fined £220,000.

Ferdinand played seven games for Bursaspor helping them to fourth place in the 2012–13 Super League and a qualifying position in the 2013–14 Europa League.

On 9 August 2013, Ferdinand was released by Queens Park Rangers in an effort to cut costs, the club having been relegated to the Championship.

In January 2013, after struggling for a first-team place with QPR, Ferdinand joined Turkish club Bursaspor on loan until the end of the season.

Ferdinand retired from professional football in July 2019.

Ferdinand was born in Peckham, Greater London, to Janice Lavender from Ireland and Julian Ferdinand from Saint Lucia.

His brother, Rio, played for West Ham United and Manchester United, and is a former captain of the England national football team; and his cousin, Les, is a former England international.

Anton showed considerable talent from an early age.

Like his brother, Rio, he preferred to play in defence.

His ability in this position led to him being signed to West Ham United's academy.