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Rio Ferdinand pays tribute to Nemanja Vidic…but admits his teammates didn’t rate him at first
Published 16:10 29 Jan 2016 GMT
Homesport
The dream team.
Nemanja Vidic announced his retirement from football on Friday, conceding defeat in a battle with a number of injuries just weeks after it was revealed that his contract at Inter Milan had been terminated. Rio Ferdinand, who for many years played alongside Vidic in the heart of Manchester United's defence, responded to the news by welcoming the Serbian to the retirement party with a lengthy post on his Facebook page.
Incredibly, Rio starts by claiming that many of the club's players were far from impressed by Vidic after his first few training sessions with United. As he explains, in the years that followed, very few with connections to Old Trafford would doubt his quality.
Vida - my man "Where is he from"...."he is well out of his depth"... these were the type of comments flying around the training ground after the 1st few training sessions we saw Vida! So to see what an unbelievable force he became while at Man Utd means the work he comitted himself to physically and mentally is truly huge.
You have to remember he was playing against great strikers (Cristiano Ronaldo, Robin van Persie, Saha, Wayne Rooney) in training everyday, a big step up from the players in the Russian league. But in a dressing room its a cold world where judgements are passed quickly without remorse - and Vida was judged! Vida is a deep thinker, he was then he is now...so the questioning himself from all angles would have been frying his head the first few months at the club while struggling in training. He worked on his strength in the gym, worked out what was needed for him to succeed in the Premier League and then started to establish himself in our team. Im always asked about our partnership, did you do specific training etc....Not really no, it was something that just worked very naturally. He was very aggressive, loved attacking the 1st ball in or out of the box, getting right into the opposing strikers & i liked the sweeping up and covering type stuff...but our partnership brought out the best in our games and made us strive harder to be the best. My favourite partner to play alongside - YES. He became a defender that was feared, he could fight with the most physical, he crunched into tackles, he attacked the ball better than anyone ive ever seen....but as he will tell you with a smile, he could also play with the ball too, which made him complete & a great defender. Because he was soo good in the aggressive/attackimg the ball areas people probably looked over his ability with the ball to his annoyance! As a freind he is made of the top stuff, always honest & thoughtful but also game for a laugh (when he is ready)! Manchester United miss him now & so will football. What a player.....what a guy.... Welcome to retirement bro! Rio
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