Where is Les Ferdinand now?
Former Premier League striker Les Ferdinand called time on his career in 2006 after a spell playing in the Championship with Reading and then Watford.
Starting his professional career in 1986 with Queens Park Rangers, he went onto make 523 first-team appearances for 10 clubs including Turkish side Besiktas and Tottenham Hotspur where he won the League Cup in 1999.
Although he didn’t win much in the way of team silverware, Ferdinand did win a number of individual awards including the PFA Player’s Player of the Year award in 1995 and Leicester City’s Player of the Year award in 2004. He is also the eighth highest-scorer in the history of the Premier League with 149 goals.
On the international front he represented the England senior side on 17 occasions between 1993 and 1998 and was a member of the 1996 UEFA European Championships squad and the 1998 FIFA World Cup squad.
Upon retiring from playing, Ferdinand started a new career in the media as a pundit and match analyst for the BBC as well as the now defunct Setanta Sports before returning to former side Tottenham Hotspur along with Tim Sherwood in a coaching capacity to work with the side’s strikers.
In 2013 after the sacking of Andre Villas-Boas, Sherwood was appointed manager of the first-team and Ferdinand was appointed as first-team coach but the pair left at the end of the 2013-14 season.
Shortly after leaving Spurs he was appointed head of football operations at former club Queens Park Rangers before moving into a director of football role after a management restructure in 2015.
Ferdinand stepped down in June 2023 following an unstable season where they narrowly escaped relegation.
Back to Leicester City / Newcastle United / Queens Park Rangers / Tottenham Hotspur
#One2Eleven
Ferdinand was a guest on Sky Sports programme The Fantasy Football Club in 2014 where he picked the eleven best players he had ever played with in their #One2Eleven section of the show.
GK – David Seaman – I played with him at Queens Park Rangers and England. What I liked about ‘Harry’ as I called him was that he kept things simple – if he didn’t have to dive he wouldn’t.
CB – Sol Campbell – at one point in his career he was arguably the best centre back around. Although my goal record against him was very good it was always tough as he’s so quick and strong.
CB – Des Walker – not many players go abroad so it shows how good he was at the time. Not a ball playing defender but was so quick and hard to play against.
CB – Ledley King– I know everyone will be surprised that I didn’t put Rio in but truth be told I never played with him. Had he not struggled with injury he would have been one of the best ball playing defenders in the world.
CM – Paul Ince – he would run back as quick to his own goal as he would forward which modern footballers no longer do. At one point he really was the ‘Guvnor’ in midfield because no one wanted to play against him.
CM – Ray Wilkins – as a player he probably had the biggest influence on my career. Day in day out he was on top of me, motivating me and not only that he was also a fantastic player. He made loads of goals for me – we had a kind of telepathy.
CM – Paul Gascoigne – I can’t believe that anyone who has played with Gazza wouldn’t put him in their team. For me, at one stage he was the best player in the world.
RM – Trevor Sinclair – I’ve played with a lot of great right-sided players, Keith Gillespie and Darren Anderton for example but Trevor was fantastic. He was tricky, he was quick and most importantly for me he could cross a ball.
LM – David Ginola – domestically the best player I have ever played with. I marvelled at some of the things he did at Newcastle and then when he moved to Tottenham he got even better.
Striker – Teddy Sheringham – Teddy had everything. What he lacked in pace he had up there (points to head) and was always 2 or 3 yards ahead of everybody else. I really enjoyed playing with him.
Striker – Alan Shearer – when you look at the Premier League history you’ll see no-one does it any better. I had one year with him and we scored 49 goals together.
Les Ferdinand: Premier League Statistics
Nationality | English |
Position | Forward |
Appearances | 351 |
Goals | 149 |
Yellow Cards | 43 |
Red Cards | 3 |
Premier League Teams Played for | Bolton Wanderers, Leicester City, Newcastle United, QPR, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United |
Statistics courtesy of www.premierleague.com
Last Updated on 16 June 2023 by Admin