I achieved my boyhood dream but nowhere compares to playing for Newcastle United

A bucketload of goals over two seasons made the former striker - dubbed “Sir Les” by the Toon faithful - a popular figure on Tyneside. Ferdinand wore the iconic No.9 shirt during his debut campaign as the Magpies came within a whisker of winning the Premier League title.

Signed from Queens Park Rangers in 1995, Ferdinand was tasked by Kevin Keegan with leading the United attack. He repaid that faith with 50 goals in 84 games across all competitions - a record comparable to modern-day fans’ favourite Alexander Isak.

Newcastle sold Ferdinand to Tottenham Hotspur - his boyhood club - in 1997 once Keegan was replaced by Kenny Dalglish. Speaking to the High Performance podcast, Ferdinand highlighted his two-year spell at St James’ Park as the best of a glittering career.

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“Jheez, people always talk to me, and I loved my time at QPR and I loved my time at Tottenham,” he said. “I supported Tottenham as a boy. Playing for Tottenham, I loved a boyhood dream, to go from never thinking I would do it to actually doing it.

“But those two years on Tyneside and playing for Newcastle was probably the highlight of my career. We should’ve won the league in that first year when we were 12 points clear. 

Ferdinand also opened up about the agonising 1995-96 title race which saw the Magpies surrender a 12-point lead to Manchester United. Almost 30 years on, the capitulation still stings Newcastle fans - and the ex-striker - who put the demise down to a lack of experience.

“It was experience more than anything (why we didn’t win the league),” Ferdinand added. “At the start of the season, we were free-flowing. We were scoring goals. You score one, we’ll score two. You score two, we’ll score three.

“But when it came to the business end when we were 12 points clear, Peter Beardsley did the calculations and, if we carried on winning the way we were, we’d have had the league wrapped up by March. Peter, I’m not blaming you mate!

“I remember one of the days, it was Christmas time and we were training late. We used to have supporters at the training ground every day to watch us train. I pulled up in the car park and someone had ‘Champions 96’ (on the back of his Newcastle shirt) and this was in December. I remember thinking ‘I really didn’t want to see that’.

“When things started to get on top, we started to panic. I stopped scoring goals. We started to think about it. That free-flowing style we had came to a halt.”

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