“I could sense that Carragher and Gerrard didn’t really want to chat to me” - Rio Ferdinand on club rivalry that haunted England

Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has opened up about the club rivalry between him and Liverpool legends Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard. Notably, the players had to come together to play for England, but this was not always easy, as their club rivalries had boiled over.

England had some of the most exciting players in the world in nearly every position at some point. They had players like Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, and others. However, they never won a competition with the star-studded squad.

Rio Ferdinand recently explained why the Three Lions couldn't win anything with their crop of world-class players. Sitting down for a conversation on The Rest is Football podcast, he said:

“My generation was driven by club rivalries, the Man United guys, then you had the Chelsea guys at the time. Some of the Arsenal guys and Liverpool lads as well. It was really like we were just different entities [in the England camp].

"Maybe it was subconscious, but I could sit there and sense that Carra [Jamie Carragher] and Stevie [Gerrard] didn’t really want to chat to me or they would tolerate me. [They] wouldn’t knock on my door and go, ‘Rio, do you fancy a coffee?’ No chance. I would not knock theirs [either]."

He went on to explain what he termed their "biggest problem":

“We didn’t have someone like Gareth [Southgate as the coach], who could knit us together. We didn’t have a manager that put importance on the group and did things that welded us together. Your club rivalry almost kind of overtook the importance of building a group with England. That was our biggest problem."

The 45-year-old continued, comparing the squad that saw him play alongside Steven Gerrard with the current crop of England players, who are close to winning EURO 2024. He said:

“You look at the current England squad, [even] they’re under pressure, the media and us, they are not happy that we’ve said X, Y and Z. [The] siege mentality galvanises them, but there’s a coming together.

"We never once had that where if there was things said in the media about Stevie or Frank [Lampard] or whoever, you kind of leave them to deal with it because I ain’t got that relationship with them."

Ferdinand concluded:

“It’s not like [we’re all] England, [it’s more like] he’s a Liverpool player. Subconsciously I never went out of my way to think like that, I think it just happened.”

Both players may have won the biggest trophies for their clubs, but they were unable to do so with England.

---

When Steven Gerrard admitted he had to "pretend to like" Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville

The feeling Rio Ferdinand shared about Steven Gerrard was certainly mutual, as the Liverpool legend once admitted in 2017. At the time, the duo were working with BT Sport, having concluded their respective careers.

He revealed, at the time, that after facing Manchester United legends like Gary Neville so regularly, there would be "hatred". Going on international duty with England saw them line up together, and he would "pretend to like them" (via Independent):

"When you're lining up against in the tunnel against Rio [Ferdinand] and Gary Neville you want to do everything in your power to beat them, there's hatred there, that's exactly how it is. When you meet up for England at that time, you pretend you like them, but your career finishes, their career finishes and your friendship starts for real."

The legendary Liverpool midfielder added that concluding their careers gave space to build friendships that might not have happened otherwise. Gerrard now coaches in the Saudi Pro League, while Ferdinand works as a pundit.