I remember we won a Champions League in Moscow. We had a party after ceremony with the team. A couple of hours after the game, the CEO of David Gill. And he comes and says, oh, oh, shit. That's a bit cool. Who are you buying next year? This was the night of the Champions League. We just won it. I was obsessed. I think we have to be a bit obsessed and a bit crazy.
You know, as a United fan, I remember you and Vidditch together adding a huge order out of the team. And there was a competitive between us. Really? Yeah, like, we never spoke about it. I want it to be the best, but no one wanted to be the best. 95% I would say of the toughest games that I played were in training. Really? You got to remember, bro, I'm playing against Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevers, Berbertoff, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani. That's better than 95% of the players out there.
What is that? What is going on there? They stay the crowd, the crowd. My teammates in Manchester, they're quite like Phil Neville, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, yeah, they're free. Every now and again we used to play in training. I've been to India, I went to New Delhi a few years ago. But I fucking love it there. It was unbelievable, seriously. The energy, the culture, the food,
What would you tell that younger, reopen, dealing with that moment? That you have to talk and it's okay to be vulnerable. It's okay to cry. I learnt through those dark days and those dark months after my wife passed and my mum quickly passed away after that as well. I think your wife's blessings are still with you. Feel the presence sometimes. When the kids have milestone moments, you definitely feel that then.
Do you have these deep conversations with Cristiano ever? Yeah, yeah. He's a deep guy, man. I know how difficult it is to be a content creator and to run a podcast. A lot of respect for what you guys have done, man. Same for you, man. It's like you guys are creating some crazy content and speaking to the biggest names. I need to bring Cristiano to India, isn't it? Is that my mission? Is that what the people want? We would. The whole country would stop. So when I come to India, when I bring my podcast, you need to take me on like a food.
Bro, happy to. Yeah, this is a deal, yeah? We've said it live, bro. Bro, if I don't come, it's because of this guy. You land up on any day at 4 a.m. I'll leave whatever I'm doing. I'll say goodbye to my girlfriend and I'll take real good land to eat some good food.
Every time we get the opportunity to speak with a legend from the world of sport, my intention as the host of this podcast is to bring out a very deep, very psychological side of the person. I personally grew up idolizing Rio Ferdinand and Nimanya Vidditch both. I am a lifelong Manchester United fan, but I tried bringing out aspects
of Rio's mind that would benefit any football fan of any club anywhere in the world. If you enjoy the sport, if you enjoy the subject of sports psychology, or even if you just enjoy getting to know someone who's achieved greatness in life, you will enjoy this conversation with the former Manchester United captain and legend, Rio Ferdinand.
big day for me to host this person on TRS and I'm glad I can share this enjoyment and this moment with you guys. Enjoy the podcast. This was a very special day in the history of TRS.
real Ferdinand. Welcome to the Renvie show forever. Thank you very much, man. Good to be here. Likewise, you know, usually I hold my fanboy until the end of the episode, but I got to express some of it at the beginning because I watched you while I was growing up and you were one of the first footballers I got when I actually understood what football is.
You had those long red locks back then. This is the first time we're revealing our new logo. And there's a lot of intention behind this logo. We're trying to go international. So I wanted it to be for this episode, because this is a very, very special episode for me. Oh, wow. So privilege, man.
Yeah, you're kicking off a big new phase for us. And you know, I'm kind of seeking your blessings a little bit. That's what we say in India. So for me, this is an episode where you can wish me good luck through the course of it, because this is a phase where we go international. Perfect. I'm happy to be a part of it. Yeah.
Thank you. How are you, bro? I'm good, man. I'm good yourself. I'm great. How are you enjoying the UK? Love it. This is the first time in the UK. We won Manchester last week. I love Manchester as well. London, very different energy. Can I like Mumbai? Yeah. How about you? Well, I enjoy life. Do you enjoy London or Manchester?
Yeah, well, I'm originally from London, and I spent obviously 12, 13 years in Manchester playing football, which is great. All my kids, my three of my oldest kids were born in Manchester. But then when I retired, I moved straight back to London where I'm from, and then I had two more kids in London, so a nice mix. But London is the heartbeat of Europe. Of Europe. It's the way it happens, man. The only thing we lack here is consistent weather.
can be a little random. Really? Like every like today, I've got a raincoat. I've got warmth. I've got a t-shirt. I don't know what happened today. Right. Sun, snow, rain. What do you think living in London does to the mind? And I ask you this because this is something I've wondered about you a lot. Bro, you're going really hard at life, even post retirement. And you don't see that with a lot of footballers. You're trying to build so much more.
And we have so much respect for that as media professionals, but I've always wanted to ask you this, that how you win so hard at life, even now. Because that's who I am. I think my mum and dad were hardworking people. We didn't have a lot when I was young, but my memories of my youth is smiles, but my mum and dad working hard.
What I saw is what I became, I think, and I'm trying to be like this with my kids. I don't want to have to keep telling them, telling them, because when you're told something too much by authority, you tend not to want to listen. But I think if they see good habits and your habits are consistent messaging, I go into the gym. I go to the gym three, four times a week. My kids see that every time we have a gym in our house, so they see me going in the gym, me and my wife.
So a healthy lifestyle is what we push in our house without having to tell them. Unfortunately, I had a great career of football, put me in a position where I could probably just relax and not do nothing. You were a legendary career brother. Thanks. But if I do that, what message is that sending to my children? Oh, my dad's lazy. He's just laying in bed. This is life. This is normal. I can lay in bed. My kids will then think that's the day you can do that, where it's not reality.
So they see my good habits, they see my wife's good habits, we're getting up, we're going to work. And then we have drive to achieve something more than hopefully the kids will see that and want to be like that as well. I'm very curious about your childhood because I've heard you speak about your time at West Ham.
And you had that intensity in your heart in order to become the best that you kept challenging yourself. You keep talking about this. And we're talking about it right now as well, where you're still intense and you're trying to be the best version of yourself at this stage of your life. Because I think your main role is not being a center back anymore. It's being a father. So you're trying to do your best as a dad. I kind of want to know a little bit more about your childhood.
What happened in terms of your heart? You didn't have the easiest childhood, but what did your own consciousness notice about the world? Because not everyone can become a world-class footballer and then become a media mogul as well. So I'm sorry I'm saying this, bro, but there's something that's gone a little wrong in your childhood, which helped your life go super right. I'd love to know about what happened there.
Yeah, I think adversity always, it can do one of two things, it can set you up to go and achieve and dispel the adversities and push it down. Or the adversity can be a defining factor in kind of keeping your net track and ruining your life. And it depends which side you fall. And I think that
Again, I go back to my parents. I saw hardworking parents. I saw parents who had empathy and compassion for other people. My mom helped a lot of people where I grew up. If there was problems on our area where we were from, my mom would always be at the center of it to try and help. A lot of other moms helping with their children. Some moms didn't have money for this or that, for food. My mom would try and help in whatever way she can.
My mom helped deliver some babies with other families that we grew up with. So I saw that empathy and compassion for other people. And it just becomes your product of your environment. And I think that one of the best things that my parents passed down to me was that you should try everything.
try where you're born, your circumstances cannot totally define you and mean that you're going to have to stay there. It's a springboard to then achieve something else and get somewhere and shoot for the stars dream. I always feel that like I had a lot of dreams as a kid. One of them was to be a footballer and luckily I'm one of the 1% that fulfills that dream.
But we have dreams of different levels. I mean, I'm dreaming now to create something new and be remembered for something else. I've been in football. That's a dream of mine. I'm trying to achieve it. We all must dream. We all got to be kids still. What do you want me to remember for?
No. Me and a good dad will be the first, probably, a husband. But career-wise, I don't know what it is yet, but to be remembered. If I walk down the street in five years and you're in 10 years and beyond, and people, the first thing everyone's saying to me is about football and winning a man united, then I haven't really done what I needed to do in the next video in my life.
And that's a man united legend speaking.
No, no, I don't want to be known for that. That's great. I like it and I love my memories. But for me to achieve something great, it has to kind of overcome what I've done with my United. It's a big ask. So, but that's the dream I have, man. I put tasks and I like challenges. You don't get successful. You're challenging yourself now, taking your podcasts around the world. You could easily sit and just enjoy it in Mumbai or wherever you're situated.
You're pushing and at the best people the best at what they do push
Yeah. You know, when we're playing cage football or we're playing in the rink, that's the closest that an average everyday fan gets to being a footballer. And on some level, I think every fan tries mimicking some of the favourite footballers. When I'm defending, I always try being Rio Ferdinand. Like, I remember exactly how you were aggressive, athletic, quick, you'd communicate a lot. And for that one or two hour period, I'm Rio Ferdinand.
Because I saw you growing up. I think I speak for a lot of Manchester United fans who enjoy defending more than they enjoy attacking. So you've already created that impact not just on fans in England, but all over the globe. You know, it's really inspiring for me to see that you're trying to take it even further. How do you feel about this when people say these things to you?
Yeah, no, it's crazy because I've been lucky. Football's allowed me to travel around the world and to see the reaction in different places. Even now, me and a few of you that my old teammates in the mania, Vidditch, Edwin Mandesar, Berbertoff, Jason Park, we went to South Korea for legends game. Yeah, but you're waiting though. Yeah, yeah, the local clothes. But we're like, even then we couldn't, you have to pinch yourself that even I've been retired 10 years and people are still coming up and you still got crazy fans that are going crazy about what we achieved and what we've done.
And those memories are living long. And it's a wonderful thing to have that. I feel really blessed and privileged to be able to have that reaction from people. And I've been to India, I went to New Delhi a few years ago. We fucking love you, real. But I fucking love it there. It was unbelievable. Seriously, the energy, the culture, the food, the music, like the colors, like it was just like, what I loved about was that energy.
Just the fact that I can go to somewhere in the world that I've never been before. I didn't know what reception I'd get to get a great reception like I received was just like mind-blowing. Yeah, but we're very emotional people. Yeah, I love it. And if something triggers our emotions, we really want to put it out there for the world, you know, and.
football is just starting to grow in India, brother. And I've asked the Indian football team captain, good preets in Sandhu about how we can help further it. Unfortunately, politicians and bureaucrats affect football in India, not in the best way. So the only way to grow it is to make it a part of our culture. And I think in about
20 years time, we're going to see a few Indian footballers playing in European leagues. That's what we hope for because we have so many people. We know that talent exists in India, which is not given the right coaching facilities and we're not supported by the system. They've got to invest money into the infrastructure to help build the young. You've got so many people there that you've got a great opportunity to create players, but your damn money and the investment needs to be put into the grassroots at the bottom of the pyramid to grow up, to be in a team that will have players that you can then export.
Yeah. And we loved and appreciate it around the world. Yeah. The Indian version of Rio Ferdinand is something called Sandesh Jhingan. He's been a main center back in India for a long time. And I'd had him on the show. And I asked him about how to increase football culture in India. He said that we need people in the streets talking about it. And people in restaurants talking about it a lot more.
So this whole project about talking to you, bringing you on an Indian podcast, I'm sorry, bro. Like I love you and I'm a big fan and I really want to gift you. But I've also got this mission to increase football culture in India. And also a lot of young kids will be exposed to football through this podcast. They should start supporting Manchester United. Start now. Start now. Don't go anywhere else. If you've got anywhere else, let's come and always look ahead. These guys, two to them.
Do not support anybody else. The red shirt is the only one main item. Is there anyone to come back? We had a bad time recently, but we're coming back. Trust me. It's things like, I should go on tour in India. I do. It's been my podcast on tour. Yeah. I interview some people, the influential people, because sometimes certain parts of the world are starved of getting up close and personal with people that they see on TV.
And I want to get through that and cut through that. And I think that that's what we've met now. We'll continue communication. We'll see where we get. Yeah, it'd be good. I'd love to see you interacting with some of our top cricketers because they are Manchester United fans. A lot of the guys my age. Do you watch cricket?
Little bit. Yeah. I'd just love to see when there's big moments. Right. Like when India plays Pakistan. What is that? What is going on there to stay the crowd, the crowd. Yeah, bro. Like, and there aren't many sports that just take over countries. Yeah. Football does that. Cricket does that. It's crazy.
Yeah, I attended the FIFA World Cup final, the Mbappe versus Messi final. Oh, yeah. And that was the first big international match I attended. Wow, it's a good one to go to. Wow, bro. Has cricket ever made you feel like that? Yeah. Yeah. So I think the football World Cup had happened in December, right? There was one stand full of Argentina fans, and that's why I felt passion just like exploding from there. But a couple of months prior, we had an India Pakistan match at the MCG.
where the Melbourne stadium was just full of lots of brown people who are all very passionate. The Indian fans, Pakistani fans are passionate. Bro, it was, there was so much tension in the air, but also love for the same sport. That's probably the most intense sports atmosphere that I felt and I adore football. And I felt the same atmosphere from that one stand, but FIFA World Cup had a lot of neutrals as well.
I'd love to go to that game, that cricket match and just feel that energy. Back in the days in my generation, there was a lot more tension in the stadiums. In football? In football, yeah, a lot of tension, yeah. So that energy you're talking about, not as many of you had 100,000 people in that stadium. Yeah, roughly. But it is great. And to be somebody who's on the pitch in the moment, that feeling. If I could bottle that feeling and sell it in the shop, you make a lot of money.
When you were playing, did you follow cricket that time as well? I wasn't a massive fan. I think a lot of my teammates in Manchester, they quite liked cricket a lot more, like field level, Gary Neville goals. Yeah, they were free. Every now and again, we used to play in training, in the gym, we'd play. I just only want to battle. I didn't want to feel the hate field and it's boring standing there like this all the time.
Who was the best cricketer amongst that lot? Phil Neville. Yeah. Yeah. They say he could have played for England. Oh, really? You know, say it was really good. He chose 15 or 40 chose football instead of. Yeah. Do you remember any Indian cricketers from that phase? Like who do you remember anyone's names? Yeah. Sachin. Tendulkar. Yeah. He's the guy on it. He's the guy. Yeah. Right. That's the main, the main, the main name. Yeah. Otherwise, is it cola?
Goli. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know many, but Tendulk had just always stood out to me as like the most charismatic and obviously what he achieved as well was like that was worldwide recognition. It's not just cricket fans that hear about someone like him. So unless someone transcends a sport.
I think every single cricket who plays in the Indian team watches football. And they're all fans. I know that Coley is a big Christiano fan. We've probably out of the 11 guys who start regularly for India. I'd probably say at least five or six lifelong Manchester United fans. That is what I like to hear. What about the other guys?
What are you doing? Bro, in India, we've got a lot of real Madrid and Barcelona. That's not bad. That's okay. It's not my case. It's the English team that has problems. I need to bring Cristiano to India. Oh, yeah, bro. How's he been? I don't think so.
Yeah. Is that my mission? Is that what the people want? We would love that. The whole country would stop. Is it? Yeah, because, I mean, in India, people know football through Ronaldo. Is it? Yeah. So that's what football is for a lot of people. And this generation, he's dominated everything, human mercy.
Yeah, why Christiana were not messy? I mean, there are a lot of messy fans as well. But in India, you know, we've had Coley speak about Ronaldo, so many Manchester United fans. Do you know Shah Rukh Khan? He's a biggest bully. Yeah, he's also spoken to Manchester United in some films. So the Ronaldo celebrity culture has been there since like the early 2000s. Yeah, Cristiano is more of a celebrity sportsman than Messi, isn't he?
But people understand his mentality. Also, the thing is between Messi fans and Ronaldo fans. Big rivalry. Yeah. I think depending on who young guys pick as their favorite, it says a lot about the young guy's psychology. So the guys who are Messi fans, I think have had a slightly, slightly easier life in mind. The ones, the ones who love Ronaldo also respect hardware. Yeah. So.
Yeah, that's that's what the Indian mentality is about, which is why even your story about what we started the podcast with. That's what I wanted to like dive into a little bit. Yeah, you know, you spoke about gaining empathy from your mother. Do you think that empathy plays a role in a professional footballers career? A good question. It's crazy because I didn't have empathy when I played really.
We had players that were injured. Anybody that I felt who couldn't add positivity to the squad, I was very much somebody who wouldn't really engage with that person, kind of like delete them from my existence really. You mean the vibe or the technical positivity?
None of the more of like, if you're injured, you can't play so you can't impact the game. And if you're out for a long time, then I'm not really spending a lot of time with you. Subconsciously, I didn't actually think about some processes and go, this is how I'm going to be. I think it's just, I haven't got time for this. We weren't trying to win now. I mean, so when you're back and you already come back in the group, but
And I think if I look back now, I would like to have changed that to really help people get through those bad moments in their career. But I just didn't have the capacity to do that at a time. Once you was in the group and you're in and we're winning and we're playing together, I was like, yeah, all in. But empathy, I think, was something that I would like to have added to my makeup more when I was a player.
Why? Just on a personal level of being able to help other people more, because a football career sportsman, it's not always a plain, straight road. Do you know what I mean? It's not all everything's rosy, everything's positive. There's always a turn in the road you didn't expect. There's a bump in the road that you're going to affect things a little bit, and then how you deal with it. And at every single turning point like this,
There's a decision to be made or there's a reaction and you always need a conversation or a bit of help from somebody to help you make the right decision. And I could have been there more maybe for teammates in those moments.
I think that's the father in you speaking. Yeah, definitely. I wouldn't have said this 15 years ago. I wouldn't know. Like you were a bit brutal. Yeah. Right? Yeah. But I think at the same time, if I had empathy, will it have taken away from the brutal side that would not enable me to still be at the top for a long time? Yeah. Sorry, sir. I don't know. Having one maybe takes away from the other.
You know, as a United fan, I remember you and Vidditch together adding a huge aura to the team. So I'd love to know what you guys added on the field, not in terms of the football. We all know that the solid defense all right. But what was the energy you all added to the team? Because you're saying you were brutal.
I would assume that he was the same. Am I right? Yeah, and there was a competitive between us. Really? Yeah, like, we never spoke about it. I wanted to be the best, but no one wanted to be the best. But over that, we wanted to be the best pair. And I think that's the big difference. You always have A side and B side in a partnership.
And that's always the A guy. And that's always the B guy. And the B guy always says, yeah, he's the A guy and I played a role where we wanted to both be a. Yeah. But we were happy to be the best pair and happier to be the best pair. And that was our strength. I wasn't looking to have more of the spotlight nor was the mania. We were probably more comfortable being the best too.
You never spoke about this? No, no, no. But deep down, I consider myself the best. Deep down, he would consider himself the best, I'm sure. But just we never spoke about it. And I think that's not a respect for each other. But again, being the best individual wasn't probably the driving force for us. It was being the best pair to be the best team. And so it was a unique situation because there's always no one that wants to be the guy.
Thanks for what you guys did. Thank you, no problem. We had a good time doing it as well. The fans benefited on this. And honestly, I don't think when we look back, we can't pick between the two guys, which is the best case scenario. Yeah, definitely. But was there also friendship back then? There was. Yeah, genuine. I mean, me and him spent a lot of time on recovery days where we're in the sauna or in the pool, just talking
And just talking about general stuff, not football about this, and we have to be like this, we have to do it. It wasn't technical. It was about families and about stuff going on in the world. Just general talk where we had a lot of those conversations. Probably I had more with the time that we were together for six or seven years. Well, probably those conversations with pneumonia than most others. Yeah, you played FIFA back in the day.
I was the king. Yeah. Yeah, we used to play pairs though. Oh, really? So it was me and Dara Fletcher, my character quite a lot together, and we used to kill people. Who was the worst players? The worst players. Nani was poor. Nani was poor. Wayne Rooney used to smash the control. But we used to play another game called Socom, which was like a more of an army game. Right, right, right. And you have teams. It was one of the best things. In our most successful time, this game was the king game.
Yeah. Do you think gaming added any value? Massive. Like what? I know what type of player you would be if I played FIFA with you. Can we speak about this? Yeah. So I knew that Wayne Rooney was a team player on FIFA.
or in the other games that we played with the army games, he would always come and help someone else. I know he's going to be out of the pitch. I mean, one of our goalkeepers Ben Foster selfish guy, but goalkeepers on their own selfish guys, to me to do what's best for him. I mean, but the traits that I saw in all of these guys as players came out in the games on the consoles, it's weird, really weird, but it was really
Did you get better as a footballer on any level because of FIFA?
No, no, no, that's not, that wasn't at all. It was more of a team building thing. Just understanding each other. Yeah, understanding each other, team building, funny moments, like seeing some of the guys smash the remote controls is one of the greatest feelings, because you know you're hammering them and they're hurting and they can't control it. But yeah, just that team bonding, we used to go on trains, on buses, on planes and play these games. So it was just by killing time, but we're all together.
Hmm. Did you have a FIFA with any of the England guys?
Yeah, we played FIFA on this other game. So, SOCOM was the one, the dominant game. It's not a random one. It's a little bit like Call of Duty. We could play seven aside, six side. Right. And you'd have Chelsea boys, all the Chelsea guys in England squad against all the United guys. Oh, wow. I mean, we just smashed them. But you also got to know their characters. Yeah, so you get to know them. Like, like, Franklin Pard was a bit selfish on the game. I say he was a footballer at times. John Terry was quite a team guy. You could see him organizing stuff. You know what I mean? Ashley Cole was a bit of a team guy as well.
Yes, it's different. It's just gaming brings out a different, it brings out a side of you, but it can be really reflective of who you are in football and probably other sports, I'm sure. Did you feel like ratings were accurate?
No, I have a big problem with the guys at FIFA. I told them every year when it used to happen, I used to read it and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The guy who's making this decision and writing these numbers has not seen me play. Good enough. I'm sure you knew your teammates as well. Did you feel that those were also inaccurate? Yeah, a lot of them. I used to ring them. I used to ring FIFA and say, guys, guys.
Come on. But you're making me like I'm slow. I was one of the quickest guys around. My numbers wasn't reflecting that. But some of the guys today are the same. I always felt like centerbacks were always given very low sprint speed. Yeah, I was fast. They weren't no strikers. It was running past me like speed wise. Yeah. They've given good sprint speed to Mickey Van der Ween now.
Yeah, he's fast. Yeah. He's crazy fast. Right. You've got to be fast to be a good sendabout, a little bit. The best ones are fast. I think now the game is so much quicker now that speed is a huge asset to any defender, anticipation, but speed and patience. If you've got those things, you have a hell of a chance of being a top defender. Speaking a little bit more about FIFA ratings.
I still love playing with you and FIFA as well. That's all I remember this. Yeah, my icon card now. So all the kids, that's how they know me. They don't know me from. They never watch me play. But they say, oh, your icon. Oh, my unbelievable. How do you feel about that? It's good. It connects me to the next generation. Yeah. And that's what's cool. I've got kids. I've got 18 year old 16, 13, three and a one, but.
the teenagers in my house, their friends will never watch me play probably, maybe on YouTube, but they never really watch me play football. But they all see me on the FIFA game. And God, he must be cool. He's one of those icons, you know what I mean? So it's good. They give me good score now, so it's good.
You know, people see an icon card, but behind the icon card is 30 years of a struggling period. That's what people don't understand, that to become that icon card, your hard work. Tough childhood, tough teenage, tough college. And I mean, for you guys, the college is the beginning of your career. Diamond West Ham, tough thirties, that's what it takes to be an icon. Adversity, setbacks is part of it.
I mean, you've got to, and that's what I think school doesn't teach kids enough. In life, you're going to have more nose than yes. You're going to have more setbacks than really crazy positive times. The setbacks are going to be like harder to deal with. And I think in school, the curriculum's good and all that, but you've got to teach some people about reality and what's coming down a lot.
We actually don't teach young people and kids and growing up through your school years that death is a given is a guaranteed. So that's why everyone there's always like trauma and there's always like fear and because you're not prepared for it. But it's the only thing that's guaranteed in your life that we're going to die someday. But we don't talk about it. We don't teach anyone. My wife passed away and the mother of my three children, which is like breaks your soul. But
I feel that I probably would have dealt with it a lot better. And my kids would have if we were taught about this and told that this is going to happen. And it could happen earlier for some people, unfortunately. But we're not taught this. So it becomes a real struggle for people to deal with obviously death, but adversity at different stages in your life. Because we always talk, everything's a fairy tale. And it's all good. It's all great. Everything always ends well. It doesn't really.
Imagine that there's another version of Rio in another timeline who actually needs the advice that you've learned now through your experience with your wife. What would you tell that younger Rio about dealing with that moment?
that you have to talk, you have to communicate, you have to ask questions, you have to ask for help, and it's okay to be vulnerable, it's okay to cry. We're taught again as men, as young boys. Even I do, I've done this, when my little boy falls over and he starts to cry, come and get up, stop crying, stop crying, wait crying, wait crying.
That's why I always say, why you got my wife said to me not long ago, why are you asking him, why he's crying? He's obviously fell down, he's hurt himself. But I definitely would say that to understand that it's okay to cry and to be sad at times, then to get out of that is to communicate, communicate. And I think that I learned through those
Those dark days and those dark months, weeks, years after my wife passed and my mom quickly passed away after that as well, which was like a double blow. I actually shot a documentary and that was part of the process of healing to one help my children understand things and to give them something a product to go listen one day watch this because this is in real time how I was feeling, how we were, how our family was. But also to help other people.
And one of the key things on that was that documentary allowed me to talk and to open up because I think without the pressure of the documentary, I won't talk. I wouldn't have talked. And I quickly realized I need to. What is going to be the thing that makes me talk? It was committing to a documentary. It was going to be able to be seen by many people on BBC. So I'd done that. And that was like a real cathartic way of helping myself get through that, that kind of
terrible dark time in my life. You okay now?
Yeah, I'm good. I'm in a great place now. I mean, I've got another two kids. I'm married with a great wife, my family and my children are happy. And I think I look at my family and go, when my kids are in a room full of another hundred children, would they stand out as kids who have lost their mom and then then quickly in quick succession? And I don't I can safely say that they wouldn't stand out and be seen because they're in a good place. And we are.
still there are issues and still there are tears sometimes and still there are moments of having to console children at different times. But where we could be to where we are now, we're in a really great place, thankfully. A lot of respect brother.
Oh, wow. Yeah. And more healing to you. No, thank you. Because healing is like a lifelong new process. Yeah. If I can cross a certain line with you, because I look at this as a very brotherly conversation. So just as a younger brother, I think your wife's blessings are still with you. Like, and, you know, the place you've reached in life where you're trying to go, I think that her good wishes and her positive energy is still with you on some level. Thank you very much. Yeah. You feel the presence sometimes?
Yeah, I think more on milestones. When the kids have milestone moments, whether they have exams or my two boys got accepted to play in a professional football team and stuff like that, my daughter does horse riding, she does something really well.
Or when something goes wrong, you definitely feel that then and that energy. And you're also asking the questions all the time of yourself. My wife does that as well. She wonders a lot if their mom, if she's made the right decision for their mom.
which is a huge pressure as well that my wife puts on herself, which is unfortunate at times, but it's nice to actually acknowledge that as well. And again, that's why she's the right wife for me, because her first interest, her first thing and thought is always about the children. But it's great. We've got a family now of there's seven of us, so big family. And there's always noise, there's always fun. Happiness is with us now, so we're on a good road.
taking away nothing from the hard work that you've gone through in your career. And in this phase of your life, I'd love to say that you're a really blessed human being. No, no, thank you. And to be able to kind of walk the path that I have, as I said, ups and downs, it's been like, as you feel blessed, there's not everybody gets to kind of fulfill dreams, be successful, win things and have happy families. Now everybody gets older than things. If you don't mind me asking you, are you happy in life?
Yeah, I'm really happy with my family. But in business, my belly is never full up. If you understand what I'm saying, I always say, if your belly is full,
I don't think I can feel great. It's not going to be, I need to get up and feel hungry. What's more to do? That's how I get up. Coffee, boom, I'm gone. Yeah. That's how 90 rated send-back things. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Maybe that's why I played at a good level, because I'm always striving. I was never satisfied. And in my career, I never sat and thought, we've won the Champions League and the Premier League this season.
Yeah, let me enjoy that. I never felt like that. I was always like, I remember we won the Champions League in Moscow, and we won the league on the double, right? Thank you for that name. So we won that yet. We had a party after ceremony with the team, all the directors, everyone's their family. On the way into this, a couple of hours after the game, the CEO David Gill was there. And he come to me, oh shit, hugging. Brilliant. Great. We've won it.
And I said, it's cool. Who we buying next year? Who recruiting? You looked at me and went, real, come on, man. Enjoy it. Enjoy the night. Give it a rest. I was like, nah, just let me know. I was like, I can enjoy myself tonight. You were going to get, give me a little detail. But that was just me. I was always like, I couldn't, I didn't. And I used to think if I enjoy it too much now and relax,
That might affect me trying to win it next year. This was the night of the Champions League. We just won it. But I don't know. I was obsessed. I think we have to be a bit obsessed and a bit crazy. The elite guys, I think there's always a little something there that's not quite wired, right? The elite guys, the 90 overalls, the 88, 87 overalls. When you guys are just hanging out, other than family and life, do you talk about anything? Do you talk about each other's psychology? Do you push each other on any level?
No, but you do a lot of things that are competitive. Everything that you do turns into competition. Really? Yeah, like when we used to play United, like, there wasn't anything that we'd done, but it was just, oh, let's just do that for fun. If we played cards, it's to see when score, everyone's keeping score, or we played some money. But they managed it and liked that so much playing for money. But when we played the computer games, it was crazy to manage you to look back sometimes and say, hey, guys, be quiet.
We're all screaming and shouting because you want to win. Even the, you know, the toughest games of football, some of the toughest, toughest. 95% I would say of the toughest games that I played were in training. Really? You've got to remember, bro, I'm playing against Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevers, Berbertoff, Cristiano Ronaldo, Narni, Louis Saha in training every day.
That's better than 95% of the players out there. So when I'm playing a Champions League game or I'm playing a Premier League game, the guys I'm playing against are nowhere near the level I've been every day in training with. So that's just sharpening the tools every day. Did the defenders help the attackers get better?
Without us, the forwards are nothing. That's what we always say. But no, without them, we're nothing. We need each other, all of us. But what's great is I know. And then what I used to get strength from is that I know when I'm arguing with Rooney or when Ronnie looks back or Tevez oiling him, guys, look back. I know that they trust me.
It's a big thing, man. But at the same time, I know that when we're in the last minute of the games, we've got two minutes left and we need a goal, I trust them. I trust them guys up there. And that trusting a team is like, that's what is makes your team a leader. So big ingredient.
You know, one of my intentions with this conversation is to get deep into your psychology. And then I hope that somehow the universe makes it travel to the Manchester United squad as well. That's a dream. We need that.
Right? Because I think that exactly what you're talking about, this deeper psychology of just wanting to win and keeping the competitiveness alive. I'm just a fan and I still love my club. I love all my players irrespective of what the world says about them. But I think that that's what's missing a little bit.
Yeah, you've got to have me and Cristiano and Nani used to pay table tennis most days before training. If someone came and watched them games, it was like that it was crazy energy. And it was celebrate, you celebrate the win. And the person who loses, he gets hammered all day. He doesn't, you can't let him forget it. I mean, we used to play basketball as a warm up sometimes. It's competition. They tennis in training sometimes. Everything was competition because you can't turn competitive energy off.
Right. You can't turn it on and off. You can't go out there for two days or turn it off. And then I switch it back on. It's going to be fine. If you turn it off.
It's going to go a bit lower. You turn it on, it will come back up, but it might not get back to that same height. And you keep doing that, it starts doing that all the time. And there's other people, there's, there one's going up here. And that was a, we didn't think about that. We never talked about that. This is, it was just in us. That was the culture. DNA. Yeah. Our DNA, our culture, the environment demanded competition. And we loved it. It wasn't, and it wasn't like, oh, it's just hard work to do this. This is like,
But no, table tennis today, I don't lose. I can't, because I can't, I can't face losing. It's hard, man. We were in your whole day, Friday's before our game on a Saturday, we played it always, young versus old, young team against the older team. The older team, we just smashed them every week. How come? Because the experience, understanding,
togetherness, but we used to beat them, but they would never forget them games because we'd always be on them. Boom, boom, boom. But we made them harder. We made them stronger. And then when they're the older boys, they'll beat the younger ones again. But it was, you know, we do go back to your question. We would never really sit down and talk about this. It was just the culture that was there. Tickle down from Sir Alex and his mind. Yeah.
Yeah, and we never appreciated that properly until he left. Because we all have egos. The best teams, there's a lot of egos in the change room, macho. Who's going to be the main guy? Who's going to be the main guys?
So you think with all the success, I'm playing a massive role. He's playing a massive role. And then the managers, yeah, he's doing a great, great manager, but he has huge significance. He has huge kind of reasons as to why he is the main guy, because we only realize when he left, and he left. And as you can see, what's happened since he's left, the ship isn't a study anymore. It doesn't know exactly where it's going. You need a leader to direct you and he was the guy.
You know, studying his mind and his thoughts has been my MBA. We run four businesses back in India. Every single team meeting that I have with my team, I'm trying to channelize the Alex Ferguson. I'm trying to channelize Rio Ferdinand, Bidditch, trying to give the most to my team and be intense, keep that fire alive. And you know how they say that when you're a boy and you watch football for the first time, you're drawn to a football club and you don't know why you're drawn to that football club, but you just choose it.
At least for the Manchester United fans back home in India, I've always noticed that the Manchester United fans are the guys who are intense. And that's what we were drawn to as kids. I think that people know a lot about Sir Alex's mind, but this thing you said about keeping that competitive energy alive within the locker room,
I think on some level, he obviously would have noticed it because his key lesson in leadership is observe. That's the first lesson he writes about. He says that he was the best observer in any room. That's what let him be, Sir Alex Ferguson. So I'm sure he knew these things and he was egging you guys on. He probably encouraged it in some ways.
But also it's about recruitment. He's recruiting guys. He knows can add to the culture like that. And it would embed themselves in that culture. Recruitment is a huge thing. You have to understand people before they sign. But I met him before I signed. But that meeting could have gone one way or the other, depending on the way that we interacted. So he's probably a good reader of people as well. Understanding what culture he has and what ingredient they can bring. But I think one of these, one of these best traits, I think, yeah, great observing, obviously.
One of his best traits is that delegation and allowing other people to lead in certain areas, like in our changing room, I don't know if you've ever heard this, but in our changing room at the training ground, where they're more than anywhere else, we're training every day at the training ground. How many times do you think so I focus and came into that changing room? Apparently never. He's probably, I couldn't feel one hand. One of the times was to say he was leaving.
One of the times when we hit, we was naughty as a team, but he allowed us leaders in there to govern the change room, to manage punctuality, manage standards. Do you know what I mean? Manage that culture.
And he allowed other people in other areas like SNC, the conditioning area, the logistics person, the guy who's going to help with the physios, the doctor, those guys run their own areas. And they report into him because he can't do everything. There's too much to do as a manager. There's enough just to do with the players. So he was great at that. And I think that allowed him to be who he was and use his shrimps with the squad.
You know, they say that the greatness of a boss is showcased by how the organization runs when the boss is not around. It's exactly what we're talking about. Definitely. Hoping that Ruben can kind of mimic, hoping that this reaches Ruben.
Yeah, I think culture is everything, man. Like, and also there needs to be repercussions for certain things. You need to call out the bucket. Yeah, if there's bad performances repercussions, you don't play. Like, if bad attitude, bad body language,
nip it in the bud quick, like these things like you can't accept, there can't be allowance for certain things. Pep's team, there's a fear there. There's an underlying fear that he won't accept certain behaviours and certain traits if it's not beneficial to the team. Jürgen Klopp had this fear there behind it as much as they all laugh in a nice, but there's a fear. We need some fear in May night now. I mean,
It's the most important thing. They need fear. There needs to be fear that if I don't play, well, I won't play. If I don't run, the manager will take me out. He's going to scream at me. So someone's going to be not happy with me at the moment. Everything's too nice. Everyone's friends. Sometimes you need to fall out. It's not a bad thing to fall out. It's not a bad thing to have uncomfortable conversations. You have to be comfortable there. But if you're doing it for the right reasons, it's good to have that.
I'm going to take it back to my own career just for a bit. Didn't do an MBA, didn't order on a business. My business knowledge came from watching interviews of you guys, understanding how you guys ran the locker room. And a lot of adult football fans, I think on a subconscious level still follow the sport for that exact reason. The greatest mistake of my career is that on our first talent management agency, we used to openly say that, hey, we have a family culture.
And there was good intention behind that. There was togetherness behind that. That was the mistake because people started taking advantage of working with your elder brother. And we quickly switched that on our cultural document and turned it into sports team mentality and added intensity, added feel. And it's been the best career decision I've made for all the businesses. I think that what you're talking about, this element of fear,
This is at the DNA of any great team. Like you spoke about Guardiola running city. We had Gundogan on the show a few days ago. He spoke about the exact same thing. He said that even within the players, there's competitiveness and you have to keep the level high or you're going to be dropped, maybe for a young player. Feel that a little bit missing at United lately. Yeah, that's been, I think it's easy to see. It's not been there. And that needs to change, I think, is accepting below
Top tier Eliteness has been something that's been in the club for a while now. And if you're going to be successful, you can't allow for sub standards. And it has to come from the top. And it's weird. I mean, even in my businesses, like even with the media company, we have here the podcasts and stuff.
I put in the extra work. I go to extra mile, whether it's researching, whether it's exhausting my contact book or traveling here, there, and everywhere. So make sure that we get the right people, the right interviews, the people behind the camera.
Like always pushing the envelopes that was new on the market never rest Never be satisfied. We've got the great new ones now, but what's coming down the line? I want to know we need to be first And so that that that energy creates a culture that really I don't want to have to be pushing these guys But I have to start I then hopefully they take it on and then now pushing someone on the next in the chain And that's how I hope that it works a
I love your office. You feel the Manchester United culture here. That's what it is, right? I think that's what you've tried to do. Yeah, definitely. Brought Man United culture to this office. Yeah. You bring what you know. It's like I said at the beginning of the interview about my mum and dad.
I work hard because I saw what hard work looked like. So I know what hard work looks like. My mom and dad work bloody hard. And so these guys that I'm working with need to see what hard work looks like. So they can't take shortcuts. I don't take shortcuts. I'm at the top. So you shouldn't be doing it. And that's how I was just like Ferguson. I should get into the training and try and be first in sometimes. He's car was always there. He's in first. Last out.
You know, when you're podcasting with someone, you get to know something. I'm sure you've gotten to know me. I've obviously gotten to know you. You have a really deep mind, man. Like you're a deep thinker and you're an intense guy. As a fan, I'd like to know if you ever considered becoming a manager, because I would love to see your mind in charge of my club at some point, maybe.
Yeah, I would never say no, but I was doing my coaching badges. I wanted to be a manager. But when like I said, unfortunately, my wife passed just at the stage where I was going to go into full time coaching, like doing my badges and stuff and really commit to it. But I had three young kids and I couldn't, I had to commit somewhere and it had to be them. So I chose my kids and being there and bringing my kids up over being the manager because
I could still go to work, but I can switch off a little bit. When you're a manager, there's no switching off. It's constant. I know friends of mine who are managers now, the difference between when I go for dinner with them now or when they're just chilling compared to when before they were managers is a huge difference because they're not really with me.
They're like, they're there, but they're not there. Because every minute, again, I was like, just got to take this call. I'm like, yeah. Anyway, so where was we? I'm talking, I can see them thinking about the call or thinking about logistics, thinking about injuries, thinking about recruitment. They got all these things to think about, how am I going to set my team up this week against this team?
So they're not really, and that's how they're going to be at home. And so, because their wives will tell you, so I knew that I then couldn't do that to my kids who needed me at the most critical time of their life. So I had to make a decision. So I chose obviously my children, which I would choose every single time. But I meant that management was a distant memory. Maybe in the future it might change, who knows?
What's the motivation behind being a manager for a football player? It's just a love of the game. You love football, man. I've had to change my direction, but it's still within football.
We're just addicted to it. It's like a drug man. You can't get away from it. To completely disconnect from football would be alien to me. And there's only a few people that get that do that and that can do that. But I was wired to just be involved in football in any capacity. Does the mental health of managers get a little
Yeah, they're f***ed up people, man. Because their life is just consumed with negativity. Like being criticized all the time. Yeah, look how great Pep has been in recent times, but he still gets negative energy and negative criticism at times. Loses a few games, eyes finished, he's finished, like what he's done before that and what he's achieved and the records he's broke and trophies he's won. Are you going to start doubting him after four games? Which I mean, like it's crazy, really. No other business that would happen.
It doesn't happen in the business world. A guy's closed the biggest and best deals for the last 10 years. And he has a bad month. And you think he's going to get the sack. He's probably got another five or six years off the back of the previous 10 years that he's been successful. But it's different in football and different in sport. But that's the life. That's the game we chose. So it's life. You have to accept that. And I'm sure Pep and all these guys accept that.
Management is difficult, man, because the life cycle of a manager now is around, I think, the average is around six to seven or eight months. It's not long in a job. So it's difficult. You've got to get in and start well and continue and be consistent. The demands are high. Too much scrutiny, too many conflicts that you're resolving. That's what I think a manager's world is.
Yeah, it is. But it's life. You sign up to it. It's like when we played football, we get criticized. But it's part of it, man. It's part of the journey. Like I said, there's the adversity, the trials and tribulations. It's life. It's normal. But it's good. It's working these things out. It's like the podcast. We had a podcast. I've done it. It started as a magazine before. But it's got to change. And you've got to be willing to change. And then you change it. And then it becomes a YouTube channel.
But then, obviously, now it's a podcast. You've got to be willing to update and change and be willing to go through some noise and negativity at times, and it comes with it. But you've got to get through and change into what we've created now, if we represent. In the best thing we've done, we've had some of the biggest names in the world, football, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham.
Lewandowski and more to come. But that doesn't happen without a bit of adversity. I know how difficult it is to be a content creator and to run a podcast. A lot of respect for what you guys have done. Same for you, man. It's like you guys are creating some crazy content and speaking to the biggest names. There's pressure on that for you. Can you sit across the table with these guys? Can you get the best out of them? Can we see a different side to them that no one else has pulled out?
I feel a lot of scrutiny as well, man, because we're putting out four episodes a week. So obviously the audience is getting to know me. I'm growing up in front of the world, which I'm sure is a problem for a lot of footballers as well. Yeah, definitely. Right. That growing up in front of the world thing, when you look back, I was kind of sick. For sure. For sure.
Right? And it's just like, you're not allowed to make the mistakes that someone your age is making. The scene is normal for them. You is different. I got into quite a lot of trouble when I was young, going out too much, getting involved in some of the wrong things. And I used to sit there at the beginning and go like, but my mates, my friends are doing all this. And my dad said to me, but you're not your friends.
Like you, you're not your friends. None of them have got a podcast like this with a name of the initials like this. Don't even have to say your name now. You're that big. Give the initials. It's just, that's it. Yeah. But so you can't act like everybody else, unfortunately, and you have to accept it.
Yeah, that's the trade-off. What's the trade-off when you're a footballer if you could only pick three things? Because I know I'm sure there's 100 things. What are the three biggest trade-offs to become a successful world-class footballer? You're not anonymous no more. You don't get to just go out and be anonymous and just go to the shop without having any interaction with anybody. It doesn't happen now. It can't happen.
And it can be tiring that man to mean, but it's part of it. Family not being able to have you all to themselves. Like I go to places when my kids were younger, they used to say, Dad, are you coming today to a fun fair place?
I said, why are you asking that? Because when you're there, too many people come there. And I'm not having great time with my kids. So you have to accept sacrifice with your family. And they have to accept that as well. But what I would say, there's as many if not more good ones. Yeah. I've traveled and seen places I never dreamed I could do. I could go to. I'm accepted in places where I would never have been before. Yeah. Do you also feel the love?
Yeah, I do. And that's one of the nice things when you retire. Yeah. You allow yourself to openly actually take in the adulation and the nice comments. You take it in and you're like, okay, you know what? So all that hard work that it did mean something. Yes, you won X, Y, X, Y and you won stuff, which is there and it's going to record books is fine. But the human element and the human touch is like, that's what, and when my kids see that, because they didn't see it, they didn't know.
Yeah, we were speaking about Coley some time ago. He's the Christian not an art of cricket and met him briefly and I asked him this exact question. We spoke a little bit about trade-offs and I asked him that do you realize how many minds you're impacting and inspiring all over the world who don't want to become footballers or cricketers?
But they just want to go about their own career. We gain our mentality from you guys. Are you aware of that? No, not when I was playing. You just kept playing in retirement. Yes. Because when you're playing, you don't, I don't know. Everyone's the same, but I was very much like, I can't have too many things coming in. That's going to distort the picture going forward. So I need the picture there. Clear. I can't have.
too much information, too much about everything else and trying to understand my impact on other people too much. I think at a base level, you understand what you need to understand quickly. You have a responsibility to young people, especially when you're coming out of the young star that people are going to follow you.
But much more than that, I wasn't interested in me. I was just really trying to focus on football. Like I said, how many family parties I missed? Birthdays, weddings, Christians. I missed blessings. I missed so many things. But my family understood. They knew why. And I had to understand that quickly as well.
Do you have these deep conversations with Cristiano ever? Because I feel... Yeah, yeah. He's a deep guy, man. Yeah. And he's like that from when he played. He's a really curious guy. He's a good conversationalist. Yeah, he's curious and he wants to talk and he talks about everything, not just football. Football is probably the last thing he wants to talk about. He's very good at talking about different things and he's very curious about exploring other things outside football as well, which is good.
Do you think one of his underrated skills is his self-coach psychology? What I sense is that if he asks many questions, he wants to keep adding data to his head and then see the data on his own head and then pull out the best bits for his journey. That's one of his strengths, 100%. You have to understand this guy is calling NASA to help with recovery.
Who's doing that? Nobody's doing that. It's crazy stuff. But he's looking for the margins, small margins. And if he can get enough small margins, then he's going to get above everybody else. That's the way he thinks. And he's never satisfied. I interviewed him the other day for my YouTube channel.
And I was saying, bro, you've got nothing else to prove, man. You've proved who you are. But this guy is just obsessed. He's crazy. He wants to do more. There's more to be done. And you have to respect that. Yeah. One layer depot. Why does he feel that? Why does he feel like there's more to be done? It goes back to competition. That competitive muscle. Yeah. He's so competitive. Like somebody who has something negative about him. He knows who that person is.
But really, should he care? He shouldn't even be seeing or feeling or hearing anyone because he's so far ahead. But he uses that he needs fuel. He needs fuel still to produce the best and to be at the tip top. And he's still doing it. Chasing greatness comes from
normalizing the sense of competition in your own head, normalizing that sense of competition, according to me, comes from adversity in your childhood. I don't see any other reason for competition to be there. A little random question for you, but amongst the world class guys you played with, or against, were there kids who came out of rich backgrounds?
Yeah. And they were still able to go for it. One of the hardest workers I played with, Frank Lampard, his dad was a footballer, lived in a nice house, beautiful house. I used to stay there sometimes and think, oh, one day I wish to be honest. Had all the nice clothes that drove a Mercedes, went to private school, was one of the hardest players I ever worked with.
How did he gain that muscle? His dad. Genetics. His dad was very on him. His dad was on him. And it made him want to prove his dad. And it made him kind of there was a hardness to him. And you think that background that I just said would create a softness to most people. But I think you need, that's why I always think parents are vitally important or good influences guardians around you to influence you in the right way in positive ways.
Early on in this episode, I was going to ask you about how you ensure that middle class mindset transfers itself to your kids. But I think you will answer it indirectly. No, I have this conversation with all my friends. A lot of my friends have got a lot of money now, live in gated communities. The children are getting driven everywhere. The children get a lot of stuff.
And I always say, my kids too much, two boys want to be footballers. And I'm always asking and talking to friends and people, how do I create the hunger that I had in these two? I was hungry to get away from where I lived and to get my mum and dad out of there. That was one of my drivers to get out.
But my kids haven't got to get out of nowhere. They're happy. They've got soft sheets. They've got a soft bed. They've got everything. Nice, warm floor under their feet. So what are they trying to get away from? What's pulling them out? What's pulling them out to go training when it's cold, when it's snowing, when it's raining on their own, when no one's looking when the lights are off? Who's pulling them out? How are they going to get out of there?
And as a parent, I just try to talk and show, like I say, show a work ethic to go to the gym. Don't need to go. I'm going. I'm showing good consistency. I'm going to work every day. They're seeing that I'm a work and they're seeing me doing X, Y and Z traveling here and there. Sometimes I'm away for five days. Where's dad? I'm a work.
Consistently, so there's different ways I'm trying to make my children feel that, but we'll only know the answer to that in the next five years. Do you remember that hunger? Yeah. It never leaves you, man. That's why I'm so hungry now. I know what hungry feels like. Physically hungry.
Yeah, physically, but also mentally like that. I know that my work was nice. I loved it. Great time, great memories. But I could see that there was better out there as well. And I wanted my mum and dad to have that and to feel that and not have to worry about having to pay bills. That was one of my big drivers and not changing things for my brothers and sisters. So I went a good way to do that.
But now I want my kids to still be that guy that will be thinking about that. I want them to take care of me now. I mean, I don't want to be, I don't want to have to keep supporting them. You take care of me, man. I took you to all the nice restaurants, all the nice holidays, nice plane going on holiday. Take me one day. Serious.
Yeah. Not that you need. I don't need help, but I want it. Yeah. Yeah. I want, I want to be proud to say one that, ah, they've done this for me. They love me most of all, but they were, they was able to do this for me as well. And sometimes I probably say, no, I'll do it, but give me, I want you to be able to do it.
There's so many tangential questions I have just about aging as a man. Because for me, I mean, yeah, sure, we're shooting a podcast and everything, bro. But the actual process here is me meeting world class human beings and gaining some value for the sake of a lot of people all over the globe. So I have some tangential questions related to like fatherhood, if you're okay with it. Yeah. Okay. Is there still a footballer inside you being a dad to your kids?
Yeah, at times, but I always want to be the parent, not the coach or the agent. You know what I mean? I think there's a lot of parents out there that are trying to live their dreams through their kids. I've lived my, I had my dream.
I want them to just follow their dream now. If it means being a footballer, great, but I'm not going to push you. I'll help you. I'll talk to you, but I really have to pull myself back because sometimes I want to say so much. But that will mean that I'm not parenting. I'm being a coach and I don't want to be that. I don't want them to come to me and think, oh, damn, my dad's going to talk about this all the time. And I try and have my moment and then bring it back to being a dad and having fun.
Do you want to talk about this to Ronaldo as well about fatherhood? Yeah, we talked about this, yeah. Because he's got a young boy he wants to be. He's a, he's boy is a bit younger than my, one of my boys. So he wants to be a player as well. And it's like, Christian is quite relaxed about it. We spoke about it. He's quite relaxed about it, but it's going to be hard because these kids have got big names behind them. So it brings pressure, you know, it brings pressure to them, more eyeballs, more people asking questions. And it's how they deal with it. And I've always tried to make it that you're not,
You're not real Ferdinand's kids. You're you. And you happen to just have a dad who paid for more, rather than have that big pressure. Right? Would you ever send your kids to India? Because that's a very prospective building, Nathan. For what? For experiences. Yeah, I'd send my kids anywhere, man, just to give them real life experiences. I mean, at least in my life's experience, I feel like travel has been the single biggest teacher.
Yeah. And I like seeing different cultures. And I mean, when I came to India, one of the big takeaways to me was like the disparity of wealth. I mean, alongside government buildings and the poverty is right next door. It was really like eye opening. Yeah. But the amount of smiles that I saw.
was like as much as I've seen anywhere in the world. And happiness and going into places of extreme poverty, but people are happy. It was so weird to me to see like, but just enjoying the breath of life. Like, and I hadn't been many places in the world to see anything like that. I've been a lot of places. So for my kids to go to come to somewhere like India will be on many levels, I think would be really kind of educational for them and to appreciate life in some aspects.
Also, when you really travel through the country, you end up having a lot of conversations about death, spoke about that some time ago. That's a skill that you don't learn from school. We have a city of death called Bananas, where Hindus go to burn bodies. And when you stand on like the guards, the places where they burn the bodies, you actually see human bodies burning. You have to face the demons on your own head. Something gets cleansed inside you and
If you're ever in India, we'd love to thank you there at some point. I saw a funeral when I was there in the street. So lots of people walking and I wonder who they're celebrating. And then I saw a body just come through on a stretcher with all the flowers, beautiful coloured flowers, like really strong colours. But it felt so normal there.
And that was a real big thing for me. It was just before my wife had passed. But I did actually think about that when my wife passed, like, if I'd have been exposed to death before, I might be handling this differently.
I think there's a lot to learn from different cultures. When we come here, when we come to the western part of the world, we take away a lot of careers. What are you taking from us? A great day, firstly. But mentality, man, going for greatness, ambition. We have these things in India, but we've learned it from you guys, honestly, because you know what?
Socialist is we had a bit of a socialist mindset till the early 90s So I'm born in 93 the first generation that's seen a capitalistic Indian We've learned it from you guys like it took some time for my parents to understand why I like football What I liked it because I could see Rio Ferdinand's mindset to the screen. So when we're traveling here and I'm getting to engage like this Oh, bro. I just want to I want to become a
A brain just like yours, you know? Of course, I know I'm the footballer there, you are. Yeah, but there's some things that I'll pick up from you. That's why these conversations, I think, are always nice and important because I could learn from anyone in this room. I think it's about managing your ego, becoming humble and staying humble enough to be able to accept conversations with other people because you might get 1% out of someone that could change your life, man.
Yeah, that's exactly how I look at the podcast and people don't understand this about podcasting that it can be a very mentality building process for someone who's hosting a show meeting people like yourself. Yeah, definitely. One last Indian question for you. Do you like Indian food? Oh, I love it, man. Yeah. But a big question for you first, actually. The Indian food we have here isn't the Indian food you have back home, I'm sure. Yeah, it's a little, it's a little European.
Yeah, because I say dishes and so that Indian people say, we don't never have that back kind of night. I don't know, but it's crazy. But bro, if I've got a top three Indians in it, top three foods. For you asking me? No, for me, top three foods. Like if I'm picking from somewhere from anywhere that I would pick as my last meal and my top three Indian will be there. My wife's Sunday roast dinner is one of them. And Caribbean food like jerk chicken is two and Indian dishes. I don't know what it would be.
A tendo meets grill with a vegetable sag maybe. Sag? Yeah, four japatis. What else would I have? You like butter chicken? No, don't know about a chicken. Biryani? Yeah, I don't mind biryani, yeah. Biryani is nice. But I like, what's the other one? So you wouldn't have this, I don't think anything. Would you have this? Lambuna? Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's got a bunago. Oh, unreal. Wow. That's what I'll have. Yeah.
I'd recommend something called Lucknow. Lucknow is like a city in India. And I know you guys love your lamb and meat here. Yeah. That's the best mutton that you get in your weed goat meat. Oh, I love mutton. So Caribbean, that's what we, my dad's Caribbean. We have mutton and that curry goat and stuff like that. Yeah, so I would have dinner after this lunch. I'd recommend galawty kebabs, but I don't know if you can have great galawty kebabs.
So when I come to India, when I bring my podcast. Yeah, bro. We're a Ferdinand presents. We're going to bring it to India. Yeah, we've made a deal. Yeah, for sure. You need to take me on like a food. Bro, happy to. Yeah. India welcomes you with an open heart, open arms. We need guys like you to come to our country and help football culture grow.
This is a deal, yeah? We've set it live on. Bro, if I don't come, it's because of this guy. We'll land up on any day at 4am. I'll leave whatever I'm doing. I'll say goodbye to my girlfriend and I'll take the info on that to eat some good food. All right, cool. Let's do that. Brother.
This is the end of the episode. I have so much gratitude. The only way I've been ready to do this podcast is because I've done 800 or 900 before you spoken to creators, politicians, actors. There's no way a kid from India who grew up watching Rio Ferdinand would be ready to speak with him.
This is a huge day for me personally, revealing a logo. You're one of my childhood heroes. And just thank you for everything you did. Thank you for the memories. Because in those little moments where maybe I could bleed at school, I had a tough day at home. I just had some sadness in my childhood. I turned a man United and the intensity would switch me back on.
And it kept me going until now, and I know it's going to keep me going for life. Well, thank you very much. I've really enjoyed it. And hopefully, the new man United will start to do that for the next generation of kids. Yes, sir. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. Thank you so much. You're for a man from the bottom of my heart, deep gratitude. My brother, and thank you from India. Thank you.
That was the episode for today. Ladies and gentlemen, make sure you support everything that Rio Ferdinand is doing. We'll link all of his channels and handles down below. Rio's been one of my all-time favorite footballers that I had the honor of hosting on my own podcast. In my eyes, it's been five years of hard work producing almost 900 episodes that earned me the right to sit in the same room as him, to have this kind of a conversation with him.
But this is just the beginning of our football oriented phase on TRS. Lots more episodes coming your way. We're going to be visiting the UK once again very soon. We'll be visiting America soon as well. So if you're someone who enjoys these sports oriented episodes for now, check out our massive library of sports stars that we've had on TRS, but also send in your guest recommendations. There's a lot more coming your way from the global phase of the Ranveer show.
