Maturing talent with an eye for romance

Ferdinand's proven ability to perform at the highest level has proved doubters wrong

The first school Rio Ferdinand attended in south London was called Camelot. Looked at either way, it appears apposite since, at 23, he has twice been transferred for the sort of fee that would dwarf a lottery win and has joined a club in Manchester United that boasts the kind of aura King Arthur's court would have recognised. Footballers are not romantics and yet yesterday Ferdinand talked of seeing the faces of Best, Charlton and Law as he drove into Old Trafford and feeling in awe.

Most, however, will focus on the money. He was already the world's most expensive defender when he left West Ham, the club he joined as a 14-year-old, for Leeds United for £18m in November 2000 and to some, including Arsène Wenger, it seemed a ridiculous sum at a time when football was debating the abolition of transfer fees.

Ferdinand had not been considered good enough for that summer's European Championship – which given England's abject performances might have been a good tournament to miss – and his errors in attempting to play the ball out of his own area had been widely reported. One Premiership manager, asked his opinion of Ferdinand, said quite simply: "He is not a defender."

Nevertheless, despite admitting he had been "shocked" by the fee, the Leeds manager, David O'Leary, insisted that signing Ferdinand had not been a gamble and that his investment would be recouped. "As a professional footballer, Rio is flawless," he said. "He has that turbo-charged power that allows him to change gear and and burn off the opposition just when they have him in their sights."

Pace in the heart of defence is a quality Manchester United badly lacked last season, although interestingly, Sir Alex Ferguson suggested he would partner his new signing with Laurent Blanc, whose slowness is more than compensated for by a positional awareness Ferdinand might profit from.

In an open letter to his former player, O'Leary predicted he would not take the months to settle in that Jaap Stam required after the 1998 World Cup. However, Ferdinand is not especially good at beginnings. If his first start for West Ham in January 1997 was embarrassing, finishing as it did in a 1-0 FA Cup defeat by Wrexham, his debut for Leeds made O'Leary's judgement look risible. At Filbert Street, Ferdinand and Jonathan Woodgate failed to achieve even a modicum of understanding as Leicester scored three times in the opening half-hour.

In neither case were these reliable omens and Ferdinand appeared at his most comfortable when playing at a higher level, whether in Leeds' astonishing run to the semi-finals of the European Cup or with England. He was in Sven Goran Eriksson's first England side and his displays in the World Cup were immaculate.

As he admitted later, moving from London to the Yorkshire countryside had other appeals. Ferdinand achieved some unwelcome publicity when failing a breathalyser test, which blotted his reputation with Glenn Hoddle, and later, when involved in some high jinks while on holiday with Kieron Dyer in Cyprus. Ferdinand said he needed to grow up and leaving London enabled him to do it. He was genuinely apprehensive about his return to Upton Park, where he received a standing ovation, but is realistic enough to accept he will not be welcomed back at Elland Road when Manchester United arrive on 14 September. O'Leary said Leeds fans were "disgusted" by the transfer and one pinned a shirt bearing Ferdinand's name to the gates of the ground with the word "Loyalty" written on it.

Ferdinand has always been very considered about his career. His parents, Julian and Janice, said they would not allow him to become a professional unless he had five GCSEs to fall back on. His favourite subject was drama, and had he failed to make the grade at West Ham, Ferdinand would have attempted to become an actor.

Janice was at yesterday's press conference at Old Trafford and Ferdinand said he had discussed the move in detail with her. "I have been speaking to my family about loyalty and things like that, but it is a short career and opportunities like this do not come around all the time," he said. "My mum and dad gave me great advice. I went to them both and they told me to go where your heart tells you and where you feel you can improve yourself."

Similarly, while he had trials with Middlesbrough, Norwich and Chelsea, he chose West Ham because "they had the best set-up for young players" – they reached the final of the FA Youth Cup in 1996 in a side that also boasted Frank Lampard. Like David Beckham, whose rise at Old Trafford was accelerated by a spell on loan at Preston, time spent in the lower divisions – at Harry Redknapp's former club, Bournemouth – proved invaluable and interested Ferguson, who had not realised the player was not Bournemouth's to sell. Now, Manchester United have been singled out because, unlike Leeds, they can offer him Champions' League football, as well as doubling his wages.

His first pay packet as a YTS student at Upton Park was £30 a week, for which he was expected to clean the dressing-rooms, the toilets and his manager's boots. Redknapp considered him a "useless" boot-cleaner, but in everything else Rio Ferdinand has proved a natural.