Less than a year later, Ferdinand lifts his first Premier League trophy after United come back from five points behind Arsenal to be crowned champions in 2003.
Rio Ferdinand retires: Manchester United & England legend’s glittering career in pictures
CaughtOffside Columnists
Alfredo is one of the most highly respected football journalists in Italy, breaking many of the biggest transfer news... read more
Sports broadcaster and journalist covering multiple World Cups, Olympic Games, Grand Slams and Majors and interview the... read more
Charles Watts is one of the most respected journalists, having covered Arsenal whilst at Football London and Goal and... read more
Christian Falk is the head of football at the BILD Group, responsible for reporting on FC Bayern, Bundesliga and acts as... read more
Haydn has been a licensed agent for nearly 10 years and is now the Managing Director of Next Generation Management, who... read more
An award-winning journalist, breaking football transfer news exclusives, working with the most reliable sources in the... read more
Diego Maradona and the England football team were clients when Jon Smith launched the world-famous First Artist agency... read more
Jonathan is a Ligue 1 specialist journalist based in Paris as CBS Sports man on the ground. He provides CaughtOffside... read more
Keith Hackett is a former football referee, who began refereeing in local leagues in the Sheffield, South Yorkshire area... read more
Mark R. Halsey was an English professional football referee who primarily refereed in the Premier League from 1999 to... read more
Football journalist and broadcaster who has reported on Liverpool FC since 2009, providing in-depth coverage, analysis... read more
Credited with discovering Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford, Rob Segal has been a football agent since 1996. He was... read more
Roberto has been a FIFA licensed agent since 2002 and now runs RDF Football, representing Cafu and Marcus Alonso amongst... read more
Ruairidh is a leading expert in La Liga and Spanish football. He's the editor of the #1 Spanish football publication... read more
Stan Collymore is a football pundit and former player, signing for Liverpool FC in 1995 for an English transfer record... read more