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Rio Ferdinand in line for Manchester United coaching role under Jose Mourinho
Jose Mourinho is trying to lure Rio Ferdinand back to Old Trafford as he builds his new backroom team, according to reports.
The Portuguese likes to appoint coaches who have knowledge of the clubs he manages, and 37-year-old Ferdinand, who won 17 major honours in a 12-year Old Trafford career, fits the bill.
Ferdinand, who retired last summer after a swansong at QPR, is working towards his coaching badges, and will be well aware of the career boost a stint with Mourinho would provide.
The move is not thought to affect Ryan Giggs’ reported offer of a place among Mourinho’s coaching staff. But Ferdinand would offer a similar cachet to Giggs as a lieutenant of the Sir Alex Ferguson era, having captained the club when they won the Champions League in 2008.
Also a former England captain, Ferdinand has spent most of his retirement in punditry and with his three children. His wife, Rebecca Ellison, died of cancer last year.
While Mourinho’s closest confidants have always been Rui Faria and Silvino Louro, his assistant coach and goalkeeping coach who have followed him around Europe, he has a track record of helping local protégés into management.
In his first spell at Chelsea, Mourinho made Steve Clark, a former Blues player of eleven years’ standing, his assistant manager.
After Mourinho’s departure, Clark went gone on to carve out his own career at the helm of West Bromwich Albion and Reading, while Brendan Rodgers, head youth coach at Chelsea from 2004 to 2008, has gone on to manage Liverpool and now Celtic.
At Real Madrid, Mourinho brought in former Merengues player Aitor Karanka, who was his assistant manager there for three years and is now three years into a successful spell with newly-promoted Middlesbrough.
Mourinho has a frosty relationship with Andre Villas Boas, but his former assistant coach has landed a string of high-profile jobs, from Chelsea to Tottenham to Zenit St Petersburg, after deciding to go at it alone.
Ferdinand was critical of United’s performance under Louis van Gaal, Mourinho’s predecessor as manager at Old Trafford and the man who let him go after twelve years of service.
He told the Telegraph earlier this month: “Finishing in the Champions League places is the only place Manchester United should be finishing.
"That's got to be the minimum demand at that football club. That's what it was when I was there.”
If he joins Mourinho's team, he will have a busy summer ahead of him, and may have to watch as Mourinho overhauls a squad including many of Ferdinand's former team-mates.