Rio Ferdinand’s Toughest Opponent After Hall of Fame Induction

Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has been voted in by the fans as the latest inductee into the Premier League Hall of Fame. Having made 504 top-flight appearances, keeping 189 clean sheets and winning six titles as a key part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils, Ferdinand joins fellow United legends Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Peter Schmeichel and Paul Scholes in the Hall of Fame. When asked which of the current Premier League Hall of Fame members was his hardest opponent, he only had one answer: ‘Dennis Bergkamp was one of my hardest opponents. I played against him when I was quite inexperienced and young. He caused me all sorts of problems. He was a nightmare!’ Bergkamp went up against Ferdinand 16 times in his career and won three Premier League titles with Arsenal, scoring 87 goals and making 81 assists. Ferdinand also said that he would have loved to play alongside another Arsenal legend and Hall of Fame inductee, Patrick Vieira, saying: ‘He was so big and gangly, you tried to play the ball through and he’d always intercept it. A great character with a bit of fire in there as well. You knew if you wanted a result in a big game, he’d turn up.’